Unfamiliar Zero
by BardTheChronicler
Summary: [AU]When her summoning ritual doesn't go as planned, Louise Vallière finds herself in totally unfamiliar territory. Thrust into a dangerous new world, she finds herself in the company of demons, vampires, and the like. Who can she trust? Will she finally find a familiar? Can she survive? All she knows is that she must become more than a Zero if she ever wants to make it home.
1. Prologue

**X**

**Unfamiliar Zero**

**Prologue  
****=x=x=x=x=X****=x=x=x=x=**

Pink eyes stared at her reflection in the mirror as the morning light streamed in through the large paned window. Flowing curly pink hair stretched down to her waist thanks to years of her refusing to have it cut despite the suggestions to do so from her mother. At least her sisters had been supportive of her decision.

Her smooth pale skin appeared to glow in the early light, the thin but incredibly comfortable fabric of the white nightgown she was wearing barely covering her petite body.

She lightly brought a hand up to her unfortunately flat chest and couldn't help but frown. She was almost seventeen years old now and yet her body still resembled that of a child. It was unacceptable to her, but there was nothing she could do except hope that one day she would finally grow into the woman she wanted to become. That, and of course try hard not to be overcome with jealousy as her peers grew into their womanly bodies around her.

This was sadly not something magic could easily remedy. At least not that she was aware of. The very thought of magic soured her mood, deepening the frown that had already formed on her pale pink lips.

Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière was a proper lady of nobility in the Kingdom of Tristain, which of course meant she was able to wield magic. That was, after all, what separated the aristocracy from the peasantry. With magic, the nobles were able to make the impossible, possible. They were apparently blessed by the gods, gifted with the power to bend the elements and thus the world around them to their will.

However the gift of magical aptitude was most evidently not given equally amongst the chosen nobility.

As the third daughter of the well-known and respected noble family of Vallière, she was held to a higher standard than most other nobles, and that made her current situation all the more embarrassing. Everyone from the commoners to her family expected so much of her, and yet as a mage she was a complete and utter failure. She could not deny it, as much as she would like to, but neither could she give up her studies and walk away.

She was now in her second year at the prestigious Tristain Academy of Magic, and thus far she has been unable to cast a single successful spell. Not for a lack of trying. She worked as hard as she could, studying all the magic books she could her hands on, and yet the results simply didn't show. She knew all the theory and had none of the practical skill. No matter how simple the magic she tried to cast, the spell would somehow fail and result in an explosion of varying strength and intensity.

Even the Academy's Headmaster, Old Osmond, a powerful, wrinkled old mage often hunched over and complaining of back aches, was unable to help her find a solution to her problems with spellcasting.

Halfway through her first year, the headmaster had once invited her to his office for a demonstration so that he might observe and potentially find a solution.

"Well," the old man had said with a pained expression after she had blown up his office, forcing a smile on his wrinkled old face as he laughed nervously, "Look at it this way, young lady, at least this shows that you're able to tap into your mana and therefore use magic. That means if you work and study hard you should be able to figure this out and one day perform magic properly. And if all else fails, you might have a future in the military with your... er... talents."

Or lack thereof.

Louise couldn't help but feel broken. Cursed even. The terrible feelings and thoughts welling inside of her were made worse as she observed her classmates day-by-day over the past year performing magical feats that she yearned to be able to do as effortlessly as they made it appear.

Truthfully, there were many nights that first year that she cried herself to sleep and thought of leaving the Academy. Of packing her bags and heading home, defeated. But Old Osmond did bring up a valid point.

If she could manipulate her mana, she should be able to cast spells, which means there was definitely a chance that one day she would find out what was wrong with her spellcasting and finally become an actual mage. She was not about to give up hope just yet, not when there was a chance to show everyone who ever doubted her that they were wrong.

Eventually, it was only this burning desire to prove herself, to show the world that she was someone worthwhile, that she was not the failure they saw her as, that kept her going. Despite all the taunts, insults, and looks of pity and disapproval from everyone around her, teachers included, she continued to show up to her classes and study. She was going to become a full-fledged mage one day, even if it took her to her dying breath to accomplish.

"Okay, Louise," she said to herself as she lightly clapped her hands to her cheeks to wake herself up while she continued to stare at her doppelganger in the mirror, "This is the big day. This is the day you'll cast your first successful spell. You're going to summon the most amazing familiar ever seen and this will be the start of your journey as a proper mage. You've got this!"

With a determined look in her eye, she gave herself a confident nod and proceeded to slip out of her nightgown so that she could get dressed.

A few minutes, some clothes, makeup, and hair brushing later and she was once again studying herself in the full length mirror, making certain that she was looking good enough to go out.

Her long black cape, signifying that she was a second year student, was draped over her shoulders and fastened neatly in front of her chest, partially covering the white buttoned up shirt that she wore underneath it. Fastened around the collar of her shirt and displayed prominently just below her throat was a golden brooch with the symbol of the Academy engraved into it - a pentagram that symbolized the five corners of magic: earth, fire, air, water, and the void.

In her right hand she held her finely crafted wooden wand, made specifically for her from high quality holly. A gift from her family when she first enrolled at the Academy.

She adjusted the short black skirt around her petite waist and checked to make sure her long equally black socks that went up to her thighs were nice and even. Lastly, she inspected her black shoes for any marks or scuffs and, finding none, smiled in satisfaction.

She was ready.

A bell began to toll somewhere in the Academy, signaling the start of classes, and Louise quickly made her way down from the dormitories and out to one of the fields on the Academy grounds where her class was scheduled to begin that day. Nobody seemed to notice her late arrival as she placed herself at the edge of the gathered group of students, many of whom were excitedly speaking to one another about the familiars they were hoping to summon.

Louise kept quietly to herself.

"Attention! Attention, please!" cried the voice of one of their professors, Jean Colbert, blue eyes scanning the quickly hushed crowd of magic students. He pushed his spectacles up the bridge of his nose and then gave them a wide smile.

Louise ignored the sudden gaze she could feel coming from somewhere off to her left, where she saw a blob of red in her peripheral vision. Her hand gripped her wand tighter.

"Students! Today you will be performing the sacred summoning ritual to call forth your familiars. These are creatures with whom you will be spending the rest of your lives with as nobles, and once completed you will unequivocally be true second year students. It is an exciting day, to be sure, and I hope you are all prepared for the next step in your magical journey."

A murmur of excitement swept through the class.

One of the boys, a curly-haired blonde named Guiche, who Louise found to be annoying and really full of himself, was particularly energetic today as he hovered around a pretty blonde girl he'd been wooing for the last few months named Montmorency. He seemed to be making some headway lately and Louise had to give him credit. The young boy was certainly tenacious when he wanted to be.

"Now then, who wants to start?" asked Professor Colbert, still beaming.

It was Guiche who stepped up first, promising to call forth a magnificent beast of a familiar, but only summoning an earth mole. As her other classmates stepped forward one-by-one to summon their familiars, Louise suddenly felt worried that she might fail in this task too. Her confidence from earlier had slowly eroded as she stood outside with her classmates.

None of her attempts at spellcasting had worked in the past, why would it suddenly work now? The summoning spell was not a simple one either, but it was one that every second year Academy student should be able to cast.

Could she really do it?

As if on cue, the red blob she had noticed in the periphery earlier suddenly appeared next to her, tall and almost menacing.

With wavy red hair, nicely tanned skin, and a curvaceous womanly body, Kirche von Zerbst was, to Louise, an annoyingly beautiful young noblewoman who just so happened to be Louise's hated rival.

The appearance of said rival made Louise stiffen involuntarily, her eyes narrowing ever so slightly as she continued to ignore the redhead's presence.

"Well, well. If it isn't Louise _the Zero_," Kirche said, gleefully emphasizing the hated nickname the pink-haired girl had earned from her fellow classmates. Louise was certain that it was Kirche who started calling her by that nickname, with the rest of her classmates picking up on it.

"Leave me alone."

"I'm _very_ interested to see what kind of familiar you'll summon, my dear Louise," continued Kirche as if she hadn't heard her, "That is, if you _can _summon one at all." The redhead let out a loud and very fake laugh that grated on Louise's ears and caused some of her nearby classmates to look at them questioningly.

Louise's eyes narrowed even further, but she didn't rise to the bait and simply stayed silent, grinding her teeth.

Kirche eventually left to summon her own familiar, sending Louise a flying kiss as she went, and it was a wonder Louise's wand didn't snap in two from how tightly she was gripping it as she watched the redhead summon a fire salamander. An impressive feat, second only to the wind dragon that the quiet bookworm Tabitha had somehow managed to call forth.

_Of course Kirche would summon a strong familiar_, Louise thought bitterly.

"Now, is that everyone?" asked Professor Colbert, clapping his hands together and smiling while he surveyed the gathered students and familiars.

"Oh no!" exclaimed Kirche in mock dismay, "We forgot about my dear friend Louise, professor! She hasn't summoned her familiar yet."

Louise was openly glaring at the redhead at this point.

"Oh no indeed! Thank you for letting me know, Miss von Zerbst. Miss Vallière, my apologies, please come now and summon your familiar. Don't be shy!" Professor Colbert beckoned her to come forward, flashing her a genuine smile.

Kirche smirked from behind him, petting her salamander familiar who seemed to have a smug look of his own. The two appeared to have bonded very quickly.

Shaking a little, Louise stepped forward as everyone in the class, familiars included, seemed to quiet down and focus on her. Many of the looks from her classmates were ones of worry and concern, with just a tinge of curiosity. She could hear them whispering, saying things like she was probably going to fail again and cause another explosion. That she didn't belong.

Her lips pursed into a fine line as she got a hold of herself. She wouldn't allow it. Not this time. This time her spell was going to work, and they would see. They would see that she was capable, that she was not a failure. This was her time to finally shine.

Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and attempted to block out the negative whispers from her classmates as she focused her mind, feeling the mana pooling within her. Slowly raising her wand high above her head and pointing it towards the heavens, she confidently spoke the words of her summoning spell.

"My servant that exists somewhere in this universe!" she began.

There were more than a few gasps and murmurs from her classmates at her choice of words. She ignored them and concentrated on finishing her incantation.

"My divine, beautiful, and powerful familiar! I wish and ask from the bottom of my heart, answer my call!"

Twirling her wand around as she felt the mana flowing through her, she opened her eyes and quickly pointed her wand down towards the ground a few feet in front of her. A heartbeat later and the mana rushed forth and, for a split second, Louise began to celebrate because it felt like the spell worked.

**BOOM!**

The tip of her wand exploded with magical energy, engulfing the class in thick smoke as the shock wave knocked a few of them off their feet.

There were some groans of pain and plenty of coughing all around as the smoke hung in the air.

"Well, that was to be expected..."

"... no surprise there..."

"... failed again. Poor Louise."

"... that's Louise the Zero for you."

"... hey! Who's touching my butt!"

The harsh words came from every side. And even Professor Colbert said something under his breath about how he had hoped things would turn out differently for the pink-haired girl that day, his head hanging a little lower in sadness and disappointment that it did not.

A strong wind suddenly blew thanks to a spell cast by one of the students and the remaining smoke cleared quickly. Afterwards, it took everyone a few more seconds to realize that Louise was nowhere to be found.

**=x=x=x=x=**

Louise groaned.

Things definitely didn't go according to plan. All her talk to Kirche and a few of her classmates the day before about summoning the greatest familiar in Academy history was nothing more than that. Simple talk.

Another failed attempt at spellcasting. Kirche was definitely not going to let this go for an awfully long time. The redhead was most likely going to flaunt her salamander familiar in front of Louise as much as she could get away with too.

Louise groaned again.

As she came to her senses, she noticed that she was lying on her back on the floor. And the floor was cold and hard, very much unlike the grassy field that she had been standing on only a moment before. Even the air was chilly, which was odd considering she was outside in the warm spring weather of Tristain right before her botched summoning ritual.

She shivered.

Louise opened her eyes and saw only darkness. Blinking for several seconds, she closed and rubbed her eyes and opened them again. Still nothing. She held up a hand in front of her face and couldn't even see it. Her eyes were most definitely open, but the darkness that obscured her vision was simply absolute.

The thought of going blind thanks to yet another failed spell made her panic. Surely one of the professors or the headmaster could fix this? Healing magic existed after all. They couldn't leave her like this. She couldn't even imagine what she would do if she were to go permanently blind. To think that she could get any lower as a failed mage made her feel awful and she tried not to dwell on that possibility any further.

Then she heard it. The sound of someone taking a sudden and deep breath, like they had only now come up from beneath the ocean after holding their breath for a while.

The sound caught her by surprise at first, and she thought that perhaps her mind was playing tricks on her, but then she heard whoever it was take another gasping breath. And another. The sound of it settled into a rhythm, becoming less and less a gasping for air and more of a steady breathing, until it was beyond a doubt that there was someone, or _something_, nearby. This was not a trick of the mind.

All of her worried thoughts of going blind were abruptly tossed aside. The fact that she couldn't see what it was troubled her immensely. Perhaps even worse was the fact that, if it was a person, they made no attempt to say anything to her, and all she could hear was the sound of their breathing. But if it wasn't a person...

The thought was starting to creep her out. And scare her.

Louise sat up slowly, eyes still straining in vain to see anything in the utter blackness that surrounded her. She really hoped that it was simply too dark wherever she was and that she hadn't actually lost her eyesight.

"H-Hello?" she dared to speak, her voice a small and shaky mess, like the rest of her. "Who's th-there?"

There was no reply from whoever or whatever was breathing nearby. Only the sound of her and their continued breathing filled the silence.

Images of various monsters popped into her head and she felt increasingly frightened by the second. Her mind raced, trying to think of a way out of this.

Magic. Magic would probably help. She needed her wand. It was in her hand when she performed the summoning ritual, which meant it had to be somewhere close by.

Reaching out around her with her hands, she felt around the floor for her wand. Sure enough, her fingers brushed against it and the sudden sensation made her jump and yelp before her mind processed what had happened and she realized that it was the wand she was looking for. Happy to at least have her wand with her, even if she couldn't cast a proper spell, Louise held it firmly against her chest as she thought of what to do next.

If only she could actually cast something useful like a flame spell to shed some light in this strange, dark place.

She decided it would probably be best to get on her feet, in case she needed to run. Not that she knew where to even run to since she couldn't see anything, but it was taking everything she had not to completely break down and freak out and the possibility of running away at least made her feel a little better. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest as she slowly and carefully got to her feet.

Her legs were stiff and uncooperative, but she managed to get on her feet and stay upright.

"H-Hello?" she ventured again, this time loud enough for her voice to apparently echo.

Almost immediately, the breathing momentarily turned into a low growl and then settled back into a rhythm again.

Louise took a step back, wand held at the ready out in front of her. She might not be able to cast any proper spells, but explosions would surely come in real handy if she were attacked by some strange beast or stranger.

She listened closely to the breathing, focusing on her sense of hearing. While the sound of the breathing was echoing all around her, she could now tell that it was definitely coming from somewhere in front of her. She wasn't sure if she really even wanted to know what was in this dark place with her.

The chances that this was some elaborate prank were pretty slim, but for once in her life Louise really hoped that she was being pranked. This was certainly an over-the-top practical joke that she imagined only Kirche might be able to pull off, or at least one that the redhead would likely want to be able to pull off if she could.

"Kirche!" she managed to yell, hopefully sounding more angry than scared, "Th-This isn't f-funny!"

Louise held her wand up to her chest as she reached her left arm behind her, feeling for any walls or pillars or anything that she might bump into as she took another small and tentative step away from the source of the breathing. Her wand remained out and ready to blast away anything that might come at her.

"Seriously! S-Stop this r-right now, Kirche! O-Or else!" she demanded, feeling a little more confident now that she was on the move and nothing bad was happening yet, however there was a sinking feeling in her gut that this was not one of Kirche's pranks.

The breathing changed again, hitching for a second.

"Who...?" said a deep voice out of the darkness, startling Louise and making her whole body tense up. The voice sounded like someone only half-awake.

She stopped moving. She wasn't sure what to say, and before she could even gather herself to even think of a response, the voice came again. Louder this time. And somewhat angry.

"WHO DARES?"

Louise stared fearfully into the darkness as two motes of red light flickered into existence far ahead, and as she looked closer she recognized that those two red lights were actually eyes. Glowing red eyes that were looking straight at her.

She screamed.

**=x=x=x=x=**

**Author's Note: **Just a little idea I had that has been getting some of my creative writing juices flowing recently. No, this isn't a horror story, but there will be some dark elements to it. Hope you enjoy!


	2. Chapter 1

** X**

**Unfamiliar Zero**

**Chapter 1  
****=x=x=x=x=X****=x=x=x=x=**

Three seconds.

That was how long Louise's scream echoed in the cold dark before it was abruptly silenced.

"Enough of that," the other's voice cut through the darkness. Red eyes flashed brighter for a second.

At first Louise couldn't understand what had happened. Her body was telling her that she was indeed still screaming, her mouth was still open and her lungs straining, but for some reason she simply could no longer hear herself. The sensation was incredibly peculiar. Then she stopped as it dawned on her that she must have been silenced by some magic spell, and it frightened her even more to know that this clearly intelligent monster could use such magic.

Not even the worst of her nightmares compared to the terror she faced now as she quaked in her shoes. Her imagination proceeded to run wild as she pictured what kind of monster might be attached to those frightening red eyes. Something twisted and ugly with rows of sharp teeth and claws. A dragon perhaps, or something like it, since it was able to use magic and talk. According to the history books, some of the dragons have been known to actually speak and cast spells.

She tried her best not to think about getting eaten or torn to shreds. There was no way Louise could ever hope to defeat a dragon in her current condition. Even if she was a proper mage she highly doubted she could defeat it. If it ever decided to stop talking and start attacking, she was done for. Thankfully the monster didn't appear to be moving any closer to her. Not yet anyway.

There was a sigh that echoed in the darkness and it came from the creature with the crimson eyes.

"I suppose you can't see in the dark now, can you?"

At that moment, torches around the chamber burst to life with otherworldly greenish-blue flames and the darkness was steadily swept away as more and more torches lit up the chamber.

Her eyes, having to adjust to the abrupt change in lighting, hurt for a few seconds from the sudden illumination and she squinted so hard she could barely see. She felt somewhat relieved even in her current situation to at least have confirmation that she was definitely not blind. A small comfort given the life-threatening situation she found herself in.

When the last of the torches, the ones closest to the being with red eyes, finally burned to life, her own eyes went wide at the sight before her.

First and most noticeable was the massive throne that dominated the far side of what was now clearly an extensive throne room. Louise had never seen a throne so large. Not that she had seen plenty of them in the first place. The only throne room she had ever been to was the one in Tristain's Royal Palace, and that one was laughably small in comparison.

The throne in front of her was mostly made of some kind of black stone, with the rest of it consisting of what looked like solid gold and maybe some silver. The back of the throne soared up into the high vaulted ceiling, topping at least thirty feet, maybe a little more. There also appeared to be carvings and other decorative designs all over the throne, but Louise was too far to make them out clearly.

All of it was quite ostentatious to say the least, and definitely built to awe and intimidate all who came before it.

Her eyes finally settled upon the dark-haired man sitting on this grand display of a throne, eyes burning as red as hot coals. He appeared to be in the prime of his youth, with a complexion so pale she wouldn't have been surprised if he had no idea what the sun was.

At first glance he did appear to be human, but closer inspection revealed that he was no ordinary man. Not only because of his glowing red eyes, which over time actually seemed to grow dimmer, but because on his head were two curved black horns that jutted out from slightly above his temples.

They looked quite real, even from this distance, and the horns blended in with his well-groomed black hair. Although they were still quite noticeable and certainly unavoidable. While they seemed quite solid and even heavy, he didn't appear to be bothered by them in the slightest.

None of the books in the Academy ever mentioned anything about humanoids with horns or glowing eyes of crimson. At least none of the academic ones, which pretty much covered almost everything she had read in her life thus far.

One thing was for sure, he was most definitely not human. At least not entirely.

Similar to the dark throne upon which he sat, the regal-looking robes, armor, and cape that he wore were black and gold in color, with tastefully intricate patterns in certain places. Attached to his hip there appeared to be a sword sheathed also in black. Judging from everything she had seen so far, Louise was certain that everything he wore was of the highest quality.

Even though she was terrified of him, Louise couldn't help but be impressed.

Whatever he was, he looked and acted like a king, and the throne did seem to strongly imply that he was one. It was also evident from the way he held himself while he sat on the throne. He was relaxed and comfortable, with his chin resting lightly on his right fist, right arm bent on the armrest of his impressive throne. Red eyes menacingly stared out into the world, and more specifically at her.

"You," the man finally spoke again, this time in an accusatory tone, breaking the latest bout of silence that had settled between them. His voice was strong and carried easily across the enormous throne room. It made her flinch in fear.

"I don't know who you are, girl, and yet you had the audacity to come in here uninvited and rudely awaken me from my slumber," he continued. Each word had weight, spoken like a man who was used to being listened to. "And then you had the gall to scream in my presence so... unpleasantly."

His glowing eyes never left hers, and she continued to find herself unable to look away, even as frightened tears began to flood uncontrollably down her face. The implication was clear. She was going to be punished for her transgressions, regardless of whether or not she was meant to commit an offense.

Louise had never before felt so helpless. And afraid. So very afraid. She was very much aware that there was a high probability of her dying here in this strange place, and she couldn't really do anything about it.

"What do you have to say for yourself?" he asked, the anger in his tone subsiding somewhat, shifting more into mild annoyance.

She hardly noticed as she struggled to speak, her body overcome by sobs. When she opened her mouth, she found that her voice was still missing, and the man realized it almost immediately.

"Ah. Right. You may speak." With a snap of his fingers, Louise felt an almost imperceptible weight lift from her body and she could hear her own sniffling and shallow breathing once more.

Now able to speak again, she felt compelled to reply lest silence upset the man who now held her life in his hands. However, she struggled to find the words. Her mind was currently a jumbled, chaotic mess. She could scarcely even appreciate the nonchalant way he had lifted the silencing spell from her, let alone give a full account of herself.

When she spoke it was practically incoherent as she attempted to say too many things all at once.

"I-I'm s-sorry... didn't... and th-then... there w-was... I... I d-don't know h-how... I just... f-familiar..."

"Speak clearly!" yelled the man on the throne with renewed annoyance. All of the torches in the room briefly flared as he yelled and the sound that they made was akin to a beastly roar.

Louise staggered as if she had been hit and then slumped to her knees on the floor, whimpering. Her right hand still clutched tightly to her wand that she held uselessly at her side. She finally tore her gaze away from the red-eyed man and was staring down at her lap, tears still freely escaping from her bloodshot eyes.

She was having a hard time processing her situation. Bravery and confidence were feelings she always outwardly projected, but in reality she didn't feel very brave or very confident at all in most things. Especially now, in the face of an enemy she knew was far beyond her means to oppose.

But despite that, she didn't want to die. Not here in this strange place. It was far too soon. There was so much she still needed to do and experience before she was going to willingly accept death, and that was to be at a ripe old age.

She still needed to become a real mage, one with great power and prestige that would make a mark on the world. She needed to make her doubters eat their words and insults as she showed them what she was truly capable of, particularly Kirche. She needed to finally make some more friends and enjoy life, things she had shunned in favor of devoting herself purely to her magic studies in an effort to overcome her seemingly insurmountable obstacles to performing magic properly.

She needed to be there for her best and only friend, Princess Henrietta, who would probably need her support once the young royal finally became queen.

And of course, she needed to make her family proud of her. She wanted to see them again. Particularly her sisters, Éléonore and Cattleya. She wondered if they even knew she was missing. The Academy staff and students were probably already searching for her, at least she hoped they were, but they wouldn't notify her family until they were certain she was nowhere to be found nearby.

Louise didn't need to look outside to know that she was nowhere near the Academy. She could feel it in her bones that she was somewhere far away from there.

Her classmates probably wouldn't mind if she never came back. Most of them had nothing but disdain and insults for her. In fact, it would not surprise her if they thought it best for everyone involved that she not return.

Louise's family on the other hand, there was no question that they would be worried sick, and she felt guilty that her failure as a mage were to cause them such stress and grief. They would lecture her to no end if they were to ever be reunited, and she found herself looking forward to that for the first time in her life.

Tristain's Crown Princess would also be most upset at her disappearance, and the young royal would likely turn the whole kingdom over looking for her.

Lost in her thoughts and emotions, she almost forgot about her impending doom who was seated at the other end of the room, watching her with blood-red eyes like a predator who has cornered his prey.

"Well this is pointless," he declared and she was brought out of her thoughts.

She glanced back up at him, managing to rub some of the tears away with the back of her free hand, which was now also quite wet from all the tears she had previously wiped in the last few minutes, so it really only succeeded in smearing the tears across her face. But at least it was out of her eyes for the time being and she could see somewhat clearly.

The man's eyes had been gradually losing their red glow as time passed and now they were neither glowing nor red at all. His face looked a little more human because of it, and less terrifying, but that did little to assuage her fear. Despite his now more human-like eyes, the horns were still clearly present and didn't appear to be going away anytime soon.

For the second time in the last few minutes, the man let out a tired sigh.

Louise watched with surprise at first as he smoothly got to his feet and started to walk towards her, and then her surprise turned to increasing panic.

His boots echoed ominously down the throne room with each purposeful step and she couldn't help but think that this was surely the slow drumbeat of her impending execution. He appeared not to be in any particular hurry, and her fear and anxiety only increased with each step.

Louise once more tried to will herself to get up and run away while there was still time, but she could only sit there pathetic and wet from her tears. And something else entirely, though she tried not to think about that.

Her heart, already pumping swiftly in her chest from the start of this ordeal, begun to go into overdrive in anticipation. She eyed his sword with dread as it jostled on his hip with every step and she thought that perhaps he might use it on her.

The scabbard was inlaid with an intricate gold pattern and was a beautiful piece of work. Same went for the hilt of the sword, ornately and exquisitely crafted. A most beautiful tool of death and destruction and she hadn't even seen the blade. She was certain that it too was beautiful.

Morbidly, Louise thought that it was in some way nice to be put to death by such finely crafted things. There were certainly worse ways to go.

He stopped a few feet away from her and they quietly examined each other, the only sound now was that of their breathing and the faint sound of the burning torches.

He was taller than she thought. More handsome too. And far more imposing up close. His eyes, definitely no longer red, were now a silver color bright with power, and they looked at her with the curiosity of someone who had been presented with a curious puzzle to solve.

"You are no assassin," he stated simply, apparently having finished his examination of her. He sounded neither happy nor upset about the appraisal.

"N-No..." Her voice was small and pathetic compared to his, but she surprised herself by responding at all.

"And you are weak. _Very_ weak."

His harsh assessment felt like a punch to the gut. It really struck her down to the core. They had only met a short while earlier, but she had already been judged by this stranger and found sorely lacking. And now she was going to die after having been told her worth.

Zero.

Louise didn't refute him, although her pride whispered to her to protest and stand up for herself, she paid it no heed. There was no point in it now. It was like telling the ocean she knew how to swim even as it slowly drowned her. She couldn't help but smile bitterly as new tears blurred her vision. Life had been incredibly cruel to her, even up to the very end.

She thought she saw him put a hand to the hilt of his sword, so she hung her head low and shut her eyes tight, waiting for it all to be over. If there was an afterlife, she hoped it would be better than the life she had lived so far. Surely the gods would not be so cruel as to torment her even in death.

She heard him move closer and she held her breath. This was it. However, the seconds ticked by and nothing happened. When she dared to open her eyes, she saw that the man had knelt down in front of her and his face was now perilously close to hers.

She released the breath she had been holding and then blinked, momentarily stunned before she yelped while moving her head back away from him on reflex.

"W-What are y-you...?" she stammered, bewildered, her left hand automatically rising up to push his face away, but it never reached its target. Instead, he had swiftly gripped her wrist to stop her. His touch was firm and controlled, strong enough to stop her and give her pause while not too strong as to cause any significant pain. When her arm went limp as the reflexive urge to push him away passed, he let go.

He didn't seem fazed by her reaction, his eyes continuing to study her like he was committing every facet of her to memory.

She squirmed, suddenly embarrassed and uncomfortable, the fear of her impending demise momentarily forgotten. All she could think of in that brief moment was how terrible she must have looked with puffy bloodshot eyes and tears and snot all over her face. Her hair was probably a mess too. This was not how she normally looked and she had a strange desire to let him know that, not that she acted on it.

He looked down at her lap, to where her wand was held in her right hand, her knuckles white from gripping it so tightly. With a deliberate motion he reached out his hand and put it over her's. Surprisingly, he didn't attempt to take it from her, but he brought both hand and wand up to his face, peering at the wooden stick and then her hand with all the intensity of a craftsman checking his work for any problems or imperfections.

She didn't know how to react this time so she didn't, letting it happen without a fuss. Meanwhile, she in turn studied his face and horns up close. His face was smooth and pale as the moon, with defined cheekbones and a strong, square jaw. He had a somewhat prominent nose that seemed perfectly proportioned to his face. Thick brows hovered over his intense silver eyes like storm clouds.

His horns were no more than a foot long and curved backwards. They were for the most part smooth, with some lines and rough edges here and there. She resisted the urge to reach out and touch them, tempting as it was since they were well within her reach.

Louise's gaze moved to his ears, and she was surprised to see that they were longer than an average human's. More importantly, his ears were pointed. Only the elves had pointed ears, as far as she knew, and she considered the very real possibility that the man with the silver eyes was not a man at all, but an elf.

Being an elf would certainly explain why he had such a strong affinity for magic, and it would also explain why the magic he used was unrecognizable to her. Elves were the only ones capable of using ancient magic, and therefore they were the only ones who really studied it. There wasn't much information in the Academy library about that particular branch of magic so she knew very little beyond the fact that it existed.

But that didn't explain the horns. Elves weren't suppose to have those. She continued to think on the matter without really coming to a satisfying conclusion until, after what seemed like an hour, though it was really only about a minute, he finally let go of her hand and returned to his feet.

"I'm not sure how you could have possibly broken through my barrier and managed to wake me. From what I can see, such a feat appears to be well beyond your capabilities, and yet here we are. Rest assured, I _will_ find out how you did it," he declared, "And you will tell me _everything_."

Louise trembled at that seemingly ominous statement, but figured it was best not to say anything so she kept quiet. For the moment, it appeared that she was not going to die here after all and she was not going to jeopardize that by potentially saying something that might upset him. This was a king after all, or something like it.

His eyes then drifted to something behind her, and as if on cue, there was a loud thudding sound from that direction, startling Louise.

It was quickly followed by what sounded like groaning metal and grinding stone. Something heavy was being moved. Slowly. Unable to ignore it any longer, Louise turned around and saw what looked to be a very heavy set of doors opening slowly inwards. They didn't open all the way, stopping when there was just enough space for someone to slip through without any difficulty.

A figure appeared in the doorway, arms outstretched with hands pressing against the doors. It was a woman dressed in ornate green armor trimmed with gold, holding a sturdy black spear with a nasty looking jagged blade on one end. The steel of the blade was of a peculiar color, a reddish-orange metal that the pink-haired girl had never seen before.

The man didn't react at all to the woman's sudden appearance, as if he had been expecting her arrival all along, and merely observed the new arrival.

Standing motionless in between the partially opened massive doors, the armored woman took in the scene with sharp eyes that settled upon the man in black armor. With a sudden haste, she rushed over to them and dropped down to one knee in front of the silver-eyed man, bowing her head low in deference. She placed her right fist to her chest, placing the spear flat on the ground next to her.

Louise noted the woman's pretty raven-black hair tied back into a ponytail, probably so that it wouldn't get in her way as a warrior. Her face was beautiful and exotic, one that outshone Kirche in every way. A few stray strands fell across her tanned face, but she didn't seem to care.

The woman was completely still and silent throughout this whole interaction, and Louise realized she was waiting to be acknowledged by the man who was standing before her.

"Jade," the man finally spoke her name and Louise saw the smile on the woman's face as she looked up at him.

"My Lord," said the warrior woman apparently called Jade, "You've returned to us at last." She paused, the excitement in her voice clear to everyone. "And I am here to serve you once again."

Her master regarded her while he spoke in a steady tone. "How long has it been?"

Jade hesitated. "Please forgive me, my Lord. I too have been frozen in time awaiting your return, so I am unable to provide an answer for you. I rushed here as quickly as I could. I must also apologize for the poor state of the fortress. It appears that no one stayed behind to take care of it while we slept, and it is currently unfit for someone of your stature, but I will endeavor to correct this error at once."

"You were frozen in time as well? That explains why you are still here, and unchanged," said the lord with a hint of curiosity.

"Yes, sire. After you locked yourself away here in the throne room, it took us some time to research a ritual that would also put me into a sleep untouched by time. It was not easy and it required a lot of power, but the others assisted and it evidently worked well enough since I am here."

"And what of the others?"

Jade shook her head apologetically. "I know not what became of them, sire. I was the first and, as far as I know, only one to undergo the ritual."

The dark-haired lord nodded. "Based on the drain on my powers, I'd guess we are at least a century or two removed from when we went under, so I'm sure some of them are still alive and kicking."

"As you say, Lord."

"Why did you do it, Jade? What about your family?"

"I am your loyal servant, Lord. I swore myself to you and you alone, and I would not be able to serve you if I were to die while you secluded yourself from the world," Jade responded as if it were the most logical conclusion. "I'm confident that my family would have understood my decision."

"You didn't tell them?" he raised an eyebrow at her.

"No, Lord."

Louise was in awe at her loyalty and the lengths this woman was willing to go to fulfill her obligation as this man's servant. The magic that she spoke of, the ritual that could protect oneself from the ravages of time, was a power that she didn't think was possible. It sounded too unbelievable to be true, yet she knew they were speaking truthfully. This was real magic.

"I see," the lord said. "We shall discuss at length at a later time what you remember after I sealed myself here and before you performed the ritual. For now, tell me how did you awaken? Was it also because of her?" he gestured to Louise, who was observing them quietly from her spot on the floor, her plight momentarily forgotten thanks to the new arrival.

Jade's fittingly green eyes suddenly found Louise's pink ones, and the warrior narrowed them suspiciously at her. The younger girl looked away almost immediately, her fear spiking once again.

Louise definitely felt like she was the odd one out here, which was true given that she was indeed an intruder among them. She hoped and prayed that the woman would not feel inclined to skewer her on the end of her spear.

"I'm not sure how it happened, my Lord. But when I did wake up, I had a feeling that it meant you had also returned," the warrior replied, studying the pink-haired little girl briefly, then she turned her attention back to her master with a serious expression. "My Lord, you mean to say that she is the one who brought you back?"

"Yes. It appears this girl somehow managed to get in here and wake me," responded the lord, looking thoughtful.

"She is but a child," observed Jade, still kneeling as if it were the most natural thing for her to do.

"It would seem so."

Louise could feel both of their gazes on her as she busied herself studying the exquisite craftsmanship of the armored boots that the young lord was wearing. She wanted to say that she was not a child, but she dared not speak and instead tried to wipe away some of the tears and snot from her face to make herself look less pitiful. She was only partially successful.

Jade sniffed the air, her eyes filled with contempt as she realized something. "And she has soiled herself, my Lord. Please allow me to end her for such filthy disrespect in your presence." Her hand reached for her spear and it appeared to quiver slightly as her grip tightened around it. Louise could have sworn the spear blade glowed brighter like it was being heated by a blacksmith's forge.

Louise grimaced. She had hoped they wouldn't realize it, but when she was quaking with fear earlier she had unfortunately pissed herself and was now sitting in a small puddle of her own urine. Perhaps it was stupid of her to think they wouldn't notice, but the lord of this place made no mention of it so she was hoping it had escaped his notice.

Jade's comments worried her and while she had to admit that what she did was irrefutably disgusting and offensive, surely this was not something to be punished with death.

"That was because I frightened her quite thoroughly when I was angry earlier at having been woken up so rudely," remarked the lord, seemingly not bothered by it in the slightest. He yawned casually then rolled his shoulders a few times to loosen them up.

Casting a glance at Jade, he said, "I'm tired, Jade. You may find me in my chambers if you have urgent need of me."

He had scarcely taken a step when Jade exclaimed with alarm, "Please, my Lord! Allow me to first clean your chambers. I am certain that it will need a thorough dusting and washing after all these years, in addition to changing the sheets."

There was a brief silence as the lord of this place mulled it over.

"Very well. Please be quick about it." With a bit of a flourish he turned on his heel, cape swinging behind him, and walked back towards his throne.

"What of the girl, my Lord?" Jade asked after him, glaring at Louise who could only look down at the floor in fear and shame.

"Clean her up and make use of her. She lives for now."

"As you command, Lord." Jade finally stood up and with barely contained disgust she said, "You. Girl. Come with me _now_."

**=x=x=x=x=**

The blast could be heard from several miles away, and for those close enough to the epicenter with magical affinity they could even feel it. The sudden release of massive amounts of magical energy. Branches whipped back and forth, trees bent dangerously, and leaves whirled about as the wave of magic crashed over them, accompanied by a violently gusting wind akin to that of a fierce tempest.

Birds squawked and chirped as they took to the sky, buffeted momentarily by the shockwave and rushing wind from the blast of energy as they flapped their wings through the night sky in an effort to get away.

Startled animals ran as fast as their legs could move, some toppling over in their panicked scramble to get away while others were swept off their feet by the shockwave as it passed over them.

In Elena's case, she saw the blast with her own eyes.

The night had started out like most nights before her. There were the usual soirees, dinner parties, and other social events that she was invited to all across the bustling city of Nifleheim. To be expected for the Night Queen. She had of course appeared at the most important ones, staying just long enough to leave a mark on the gathering and to remind everyone of who she was.

There were the anticipated exchanges of pleasantries and flattery, and of course there was the drinking, but she tried to keep that to a minimum. While most of the talk was shallow, mild, and uninteresting, a few asked her to lend them her ear and she obliged when she considered it worthwhile. Those instances were very few, and that night was no different.

Later in the evening, she found herself alone back at home with a glass of red staring off into the distance from the sizable balcony that jutted out from the master suite.

A cool breeze blew gently across her skin and the leaves of the nearby trees rustled lightly.

Even though it was extra dark that evening thanks to the clouds that hung overhead hiding the moon, Elena could see just as clearly as if she were in the light of the midday sun, and her gaze fixated like it usually did to the dark mountain that stood alone far to the north of the city, and to the fortress that she spent much of her time in centuries ago.

Those were the days when it seemed as if the whole world turned around them. When their choices and movements caused all the world to dance to their tune. When all eyes looked to the dark mountain, some with fear and hate and others with reverence and respect.

Now she felt smaller than she once was, for she had been to the peak of the world and was now unable to summit so high again, resigned to simply gaze up with longing at the place she once knew but now could never reach.

To be fair, she did try. She did the best that she could given the circumstances.

She had fought and maneuvered her way to the highest reaches of Nifleheim society and made her name known to many in the Territories. And when she had accomplished that, Elena then attempted to return to the heights which she had reached before, to have even a slice of that time when the world appeared to be at her beck and call, but it was not as easy as it once was.

Not that it was easy at all, but it sure felt easier to change the world back when the fortress was alive and so full of energy that the air was practically thrumming with it. When the company of her peers kept her on her toes, engaged and thrilled by those with the strength and wits to match her and sometimes even best her. Those were the days when she looked forward to every new day and every new challenge. Back when her master was still alive.

Her train of thought was interrupted when she saw it. A flash of light unmistakable to her superhuman eyes. She blinked. It had come from the fortress. It seemed like a magical explosion of some kind. The first signs of life there in over two and a half centuries. There were only a few souls who would dare to get close to the fortress, quiet as it was these days, and even fewer still with the courage to enter it.

"Bartho," she called out as she finished the rest of her drink in one go, licking her lips with a satisfied sigh after.

There was a slight whooshing sound behind her.

"You called, your eminence?"

The gray-haired butler bowed with a gloved hand resting on his chest, red eyes staring respectfully at the ground by his master's feet. His black tuxedo was impeccable and he wore it quite handsomely, as was expected of him.

"Summon the Night Guard and have them meet me at the fortress, ready for battle. I'll be going there now myself," she said, handing her empty glass to him.

She sensed the briefest of hesitations before his reply, one that most people would not have picked up on.

"_That _fortress, my Queen?" he asked to be sure, eyes still looking down respectfully. He undoubtedly had more questions, but they went unasked. He knew better than that.

"Yes," she smiled ever so slightly at him, not that he could see, and her red eyes glowed with power. "The Black Fortress."

"Understood. How many of the Guard shall I call up, my Queen?"

"All of them."

And with that said she launched herself up into the air in a move so fast that the wind rushed and whirled around the space she had previously occupied, buffeting the butler who now stood alone on the balcony for a few seconds. He watched while his master suddenly sprout wings and flew off into the night before he too disappeared in a blur.

**=x=x=x=x=**

Louise struggled to keep up with the much taller lady warrior, who walked briskly with her long strides through the cold and deserted halls of the fortress, not making any attempt to slow down for the pink-haired girl.

Jade's spear, much to Louise's surprise, effectively became a torch after a moment of concentration from the lady warrior resulted in it bursting into a brilliant flame the same color as the glowing reddish-orange steel it burned out of. Outside of the throne room, the rest of the fortress was dark and unlit, but Jade was doing her best to light the ones that they passed along the way.

The younger girl's shoes squelched with each step, a humiliating reminder of her earlier indiscretion. Her clothes were still somewhat damp too and the chill air of the sleepy fortress made her shiver.

They made several turns and walked through long and silent hallways before they found themselves in a spacious spiral staircase. A cold draft blew in from above and she shivered again as the lady warrior led the way down the stairs.

Deeper into the fortress they went, and Louise marveled at the sheer size of the place. It was most definitely a bigger structure than the Academy or the Royal Palace in Tristain, maybe even larger than both combined. There seemed to be no end to the number of passageways, and the stairs seemed to go on forever in either direction.

Not once did the warrior speak to her as they made their way through the halls of the fortress. Their footsteps echoed across the cold dark stones of the otherwise silent passageways until at last they appeared to arrive at their destination.

Jade led her into a large room furnished with several identical tables and chairs. The warrior moved with purpose, lighting a few of the torches on the walls. They served not only to bring more light to the room, but to also warm the air, and Louise was certainly grateful for that as she shivered. It was colder down here compared to the throne room.

While the warrior moved about, Louise took this time to study the place. They had traveled deeper into the fortress and so the room unsurprisingly had no windows, but there were several wooden doors besides the one they had entered from. The walls were smooth dark stone and unadorned save for the brackets that held the torches in place.

The tables and chairs looked sturdy and well-made, but were in desperate need of a good dusting. A woven basket sat empty and alone upon one of the tables.

Along one of the walls was what looked to be a cooking area, with a place to light a fire for cooking and ample counter space for everything else. Above that was a stone hood and chimney to whisk away the smoke that would undoubtedly come from any cooking. In the corner and on top of the counter were a few sets of cutlery and a stack of simple plates and bowls.

"This is one of the servants quarters. Pick a room and it will be yours for as long as my Lord allows it," explained Jade frankly, her green eyes were hard as they stared down at Louise with a disdain that the young girl was all too familiar with.

Jade pointed to one of the doors. "That is the bathroom. Clean yourself up and wash your clothes. Thoroughly. Everything you need should still be in there. If not, one of these doors is also a supply closet. Take what you need. There should also be some leftover clothes somewhere for you to change into while your clothes dry. I have no time to watch over you so you must do this all yourself. Understand?"

Louise blinked, taking it all in, and nodded in understanding. The thought of being reduced to a mere servant shamed her and further eroded what little was left of her broken pride, but servitude was far better than death. At least while she was alive, she could work to improve herself and her situation.

Besides, it was not necessarily unheard of for mages to be servants of other mages, and the lord of this place was certainly a powerful magic user. That helped to slightly ease her troubled thoughts.

"When you're finished cleaning yourself up, take the stairs that we came from and go all the way up as high as you can go. You'll find me there. Do _not _keep me waiting for long," Jade said with a serious look that also told the younger girl to keep any questions she had to herself. Her fire-spear flared a little to emphasize the implied threat.

Louise understood well enough and nodded again, this time stammering out a quick reply. "Y-Yes ma'am!"

Jade left her alone almost immediately and Louise let out a long breath.

Her eyes scanned the room one more time. This was to be her home for a while. How long that would be, she didn't know, but she was going to do her best to try and survive here for as long as she can. She had to.

It was honestly better than she thought she was going to get, and for that at least she was grateful. She was lucky to be alive and she knew it.

Besides, her treatment here couldn't be any worse than back at the Academy. Except perhaps for the constant threat of death or dismemberment.

Sobs threatened to overcome her then and tears came unbidden to her eyes, but she quickly wiped those away and fought hard to hold herself in check. Right now there was no time for that. Not with a flame-spear-wielding warrior waiting on her.

Sniffling, Louise shook her head and gathered herself as best she could and got down to business.

There turned out to be four bedrooms in total, each one pretty much identical in layout and furnishings, with only the bare necessities. Then there was the one communal bathroom that had a bathtub, sink, and a latrine or toilet. If nothing else there was at least running water and plumbing, though she figured the water was likely going to be frigid and she was not looking forward to bathing in that.

Turning the faucet loose, she ran the bath while she set about getting everything ready and familiarizing herself with her new home.

She searched the storage room and found a towel and a sponge, but unfortunately there didn't seem to be any shampoo or soap that survived however long it had been since there were servants here, but she figured she could manage without those for now. Perhaps it was something she could ask for later on, when the opportunity presented itself.

One of the rooms had several folded maid outfits stored in a cabinet and they looked surprisingly clean, and they were the only women's clothes she could find. Though she was loathe to wear one, since it was something more befitting of a commoner than a noble of Tristain such as herself, she didn't really have much choice in the matter. Her current outfit was partially wet and smelled of urine and even she had to admit that it was pretty gross to continue walking around in them.

There was, however, one major problem with all of this: there was no clean underwear anywhere. Her own underwear was definitely still soiled, and even if she was able to clean it, which she couldn't properly without soap, there was still the issue of drying it and she wasn't about to wear panties that were soaking wet.

Although the thought of not wearing any underwear at all brought a deep blush to her cheeks. Shaking her head, she looked at the maid's outfit, which was the typical black dress with white trim and frills along with a white apron. The dress at least was a little too big for her, which while it made it loose, also meant that it went past her knees. That was going to have to do since she had no other options given her short time limit.

When there was enough water in the stone tub, Louise stopped the faucet, took off her clothes, and set them aside to be washed later when she had more time. Mindful not to take too long in the bath, she was surprised at how much warmer the water was than she had originally expected. It wasn't as hot as she would have preferred, but it was pleasant enough and thankfully not cold.

Once she was all clean, she went ahead and donned the maid outfit that was entirely too big for her. The fabric was surprisingly comfortable and of good quality, feeling fairly comfortable against her skin. The thought of not wearing underwear underneath it made her blush and she tried to think of anything else to get her mind off of it.

Only one mirror existed in the servants quarters and it was located in the bathroom. A cursory glance at herself in a maid outfit made her think of Siesta, one of the maids at the Academy whose uniform was very similar to this one.

The commoner was a nice enough girl and performed her duties fairly well and without complaint. Louise had never interacted with her directly, but she had heard about her from the others.

Louise hoped to channel at least some of the young maid's spirit while performing whatever duties were required of her in order for her to continue surviving in this strange place. Judging from the two people she had encountered in this fortress so far, her usual stubborn and combative self would prove fatal here, so she would have to be extra careful of her emotions.

Moving as swiftly as her feet could take her, she managed not to get too lost on her way back to the spiral staircase.

Up she went, her damp hair clinging to her skin where it could as the cold draft continued to come from above, leaving her feeling chilly. There had been no time to thoroughly dry her hair, so when it was dry enough for her to work with, she stopped.

A few times she had to lean against the wall to catch her breath, the stairs seemingly endless, and by the time she finally reached the very top as instructed her legs were burning from the effort and she already felt quite tired. Louise mused that the servants who used to live here probably ended up incredibly fit with legs of steel.

She stepped into the hallway and saw that it was fairly short and led to only one set of double doors stained black and engraved with gold, a common color scheme in this place. Louise estimated them to be about twice her height. One of the doors was ajar and light streamed out from the gap.

The torches up here burned a bright red-orange like the flames from Jade's spear, indicating that the warrior had certainly passed through.

Here at the very top floor of the fortress was without question the lord's chambers, and Louise found herself interested to find out what it looked like inside. She imagined it to be as ostentatious as the throne upon which he sat.

Stepping through the door and into the wide expanse of the room beyond, she was immediately greeted by a strange sight.

Jade's spear was planted right by the entrance and appeared to be staying upright on its own, defying gravity somehow. The spear blade was no longer on fire, but the reddish-orange steel looked to be glowing with energy, and the air around the weapon was undoubtedly warmer than the hallway that she had walked through only seconds ago.

Her eyes scanned the rectangular room. It was not quite as lavish as she thought it might be, given what she had seen in the throne room, but the size of the room was impressive. There were plenty of cushioned chairs, tables, and various decorations and ornaments all over the room. Crystal chandeliers hung from the high ceiling.

Given the ample amount of seating as well as the other furniture, this was more than likely a room for entertaining guests. What kinds of guests the lord hosted here, Louise wanted to know.

On one side of the room to her left was an open archway leading off to another part of the chambers. Across from it, on the other side of the room and to her right, was a heavy wooden door that was closed shut. And opposite from where Jade was standing, across from the main entrance, was another set of double doors. Unlike the main doors, these were made of glass and polished wood and led out onto a terrace.

To either side of those doors were several large floor-to-ceiling windows, each one framed by long drapes of black and gold.

There was no sign of Jade. The warrior was probably somewhere further in.

Taking this chance to take a closer look at said warrior's weapon, Louise stepped up to it with the eagerness of a child who had received an unexpected present and was about to open it. She noted the countless small runes expertly carved all along the length of the spear. There must have been hundreds of them, maybe even thousands. Sadly, Louise didn't recognize a single one, but she could at the very least admire the craftsmanship.

It looked as though it was made of a similar material to the black steel that the lord of the fortress used for his equipment. Though it was hard to tell for sure without putting them side-by-side. Scrutinizing it even more, she realized that light seemed to interact strangely with the metal, moving and reflecting oddly as she peered at it from different angles. Rippling even.

Intrigued, she reached out a hand to grasp the spear but stopped short, her hand hovering perilously close to the weapon. Touching the weapon was probably not a good idea even though she really wanted to.

"Do it," someone whispered gently in her ear, breath tickling her skin and startling her almost out of her outfit.

Louise jumped so abruptly away from the direction of the whispering voice that she lost her footing, stumbled, and in the middle of having lost her balance she grabbed at the only thing she could.

Jade's spear somehow didn't budge as the young girl used it to steady herself, and for a few seconds Louise continued to hold on to it as she looked around for the voice that had whispered in her ear. The metal was cool to the touch, and strangely enough it felt like it was moving and rippling subtly in her hand.

Before she could explore the bizarre sensation further, she noticed the spear blade begin to glow, and then she felt the spear heat up against her hand so rapidly that it practically burned her palm faster than she could even react. By the time she yelped in pain and let go of the weapon, the damage had already been done, and her palm burned terribly.

Taking several steps back, she grimaced while, not for the first time that day, tears filled her vision. These tears actually came from pain and not fear this time. Wiping them away angrily and hissing as her palm throbbed with pain, Louise scanned the immediate area for the culprit and still could not find anyone.

When she was about to consider that she might have simply imagined it or worse that she was starting to lose her mind and hear voices, she was made aware that there was in fact someone else in the room with her.

"Looking for me, dear?" said a playful feminine voice that was equally sultry and cultured. What was strange though was that the voice came from above her.

Louise slowly looked up.

It was the hair that she saw first. Long, wavy blonde hair that hung down from the ceiling, and when she followed the hair up to the head to which it was attached, Louise's breath hitched in her throat as she froze and found herself staring straight into the gleaming red pupils of a pale woman.

A woman who was somehow standing effortlessly on the ceiling, arms crossed over her full breasts that were barely contained in an elegant form-fitting dress that matched the color of her eyes.

When the blonde woman smiled, her plump lipstick red lips parted to reveal rows of perfect, pearly white teeth. But even though she was upside down, it was the woman's canines that drew Louise's attention. They were long. Too long. More like fangs than teeth.

**=x=x=x=x=**

**Author's Note: **And we're off! I'm not sure how many of you fanfic readers use the metric system or imperial system of measurement - as an American, I'm more comfortable with the imperial system, which I use here, but I'm curious to know what the percentages are for each system on.

Btw, if you're having trouble picturing the horns of our other main character, think of Loki's (from Marvel) helmet and then move the horns a little more to the side of the head from where they are. And half the length too.

Just as a notice: thus far, the only character from the anime series in this story will be Louise. Everyone else will be OC's. This is _very _much AU. I might do some flashbacks that include other series characters and haven't completely ruled out writing chapters about what's going on with the people in Tristain, but as of now there are no concrete plans to write about them moving forward.


	3. Chapter 2

**X**

**Unfamiliar Zero**

**Chapter 2  
****=x=x=x=x=X****=x=x=x=x=**

"Well hello there. Aren't you just a tasty little snack?" said the blonde lady in the red dress.

Louise felt an uneasy feeling settle into her stomach even while she continued to stare up at the blonde. After all, it was not every day that she saw someone standing on the ceiling as easily as if she were on the floor. And the woman certainly appeared to be entirely too comfortable up there.

"Well nobody told me about _you_," continued the lady in her sultry voice, her friendly smile twisting into more of a smirk. "This evening is just full of surprises, and I do quite love surprises. So tell me, my dear little surprise, what is your name?"

There was a moment of silence as they watched each other and Louise realized that the woman was patiently waiting for her to respond. The smile on the woman's face didn't shift at all and was getting creepier by the second.

Louise finally broke eye contact and looked back towards the door through which she had entered, blinking the dryness away from her eyes from having stared at the woman for so long. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest and her breathing was shallow and quick.

Every muscle in her body was tense and ready to move at a moment's notice. Like prey trapped by a predator waiting for any chance to escape. Except Louise had a sinking feeling there was no chance to run away from this woman even if she tried.

"My name..?" Louise repeated slowly. She wasn't sure if telling the woman was a good idea, but she was also afraid of what might happen if she didn't. The woman obviously had magical powers of some kind. How else could she walk on the ceiling like that? Not to mention the way the blonde carried herself belied a sense of authority and aristocracy, and such people were not to be crossed lightly.

"You _do _have a name, right?" she asked with a hint of disappointment, her smile finally disappearing. She didn't let Louise out of her sight as she started to walk closer.

Louise subconsciously took a few steps back until her back hit the wall. She gulped and nodded dumbly and the woman's smile returned.

"Well? Do tell."

"My name... is," Louise started to say, but then paused for another moment of internal debate before she continued, "My name is Louise. Louise Vallière. It's... It's a pleasure to meet you, your Ladyship." She considered lying and giving a false name, but her instincts told her that the truth was probably the better choice in this situation.

"Louise Vallière?" repeated the blonde woman in a tone that sounded like she was testing the way it sounded with her own voice. "I wonder where they dug you up from," she said thoughtfully, then shrugged, "But that's not too important right now. What _is_ important is that I've known a few Louises in my very long life, and none of them ever had such lovely pink hair. Or such pretty pink eyes. Are they naturally like that?"

Nodding slowly, Louise could't help but think that it was incredibly weird that she was having a conversation with someone standing on the ceiling. Not that the blonde lady seemed to mind it in the slightest. Perhaps the woman did this fairly often.

More importantly, Louise noted that the lady didn't appear to recognize her last name, which confirmed that she was indeed somewhere well outside of Tristain. Her family was fairly well-known in Tristain after all. Usually, if people didn't immediately recognize her from her pink hair, dropping her family name meant instant recognition and some sort of special treatment.

Not this time however.

"Fascinating," the woman's smile widened momentarily and Louise further confirmed that the fangs were indeed not simply a figment of her imagination. "Would you say, then, that pink hair and eyes runs in your blood? Do others in your family have these traits as well?" she asked eagerly.

Louise nodded timidly, thinking it to be a rather odd question to be asked.

"You don't talk much, do you?" said the woman. Without warning, she somehow detached herself from the ceiling, spun rapidly in the air as she fell, and then landed gracefully on her feet into a low crouch on the floor with a surprisingly light thud.

Impressed but taken aback by the abrupt movement, Louise could only continue stare, mesmerized as the woman stood back up to her full height.

The pale blonde lady was unquestionably taller than Louise, like most people were, but it was more evident now that they were standing on the same surface. Her beautiful wavy blonde hair was long, going to about halfway down her torso. Some of her golden strands fell to either side of her lovely face, with the majority of it flowing elegantly behind her.

The blonde had an enviously curvaceous body, one that was shown off well by the form-fitting red dress that she was wearing. She was stunning, graceful, confident, and from what Louise could tell she was powerful too. In short, she was everything Louise aspired to be as a noble.

Before anything else could be said, Louise's palm started to throb once more with pain and she grimaced. The shock of meeting the blonde lady in such a fashion had apparently worn off and her body was again reminding her of the burn she had incurred from touching Jade's staff. She glanced down at the injury to inspect the burns.

It looked as bad as it felt. Her whole palm was an ugly mess of swelling, redness, and rampant blistering. Even just looking at the burns served to intensify the pain she felt and she involuntarily hissed and gritted her teeth hard, fresh tears sliding down her cheeks.

Normally, she would have already made her way to a healer to get the burns taken care of, but she had no idea where to get medical treatment in this strange new place.

"Oh my, that looks like it really hurts," remarked the lady sympathetically, though it was hard for Louise to tell if it was genuine concern or mockery. "If it makes you feel any better, dear, you're not the only one who learned the hard way not to touch that woman's spear. Quite a nasty weapon, that one."

That piece of information did not make Louise feel any better. She let out a long hiss as the pain was starting to get overwhelming and the room started to spin for her. She didn't notice at first that the blonde woman was suddenly standing right in front of her, and then the woman gently gripped Louise's arms as she leaned in close, the young girl unable to do anything to stop her or move away.

The lady's hands felt strangely cool against Louise's skin.

"Don't worry, Louise. I'm here to help," whispered the lady, "You see, I can ease your suffering. I can make the pain go away." Her cool breath tickled Louise's neck. "Just relax." The blonde lightly kissed the young girl's neck and Louise shivered from the unexpected contact.

Louise didn't know what to do, but there was no way in hell she was able to relax in this situation.

"Relax," whispered the lady again, her face now a few inches away from Louise's own. Blood red eyes stared into pink ones and Louise suddenly felt herself relax in the woman's grip. Even the pain of her burned hand faded to a dull ache, and Louise was both relieved and alarmed. She was most certainly under some kind of spell now. But how?

The lady smiled as she continued to stare into Louise's eyes, her unnaturally long canine fangs now perilously close. The smile turned into her mouth opening up as one would if they were about to take a bite out of some food, and it quickly became clear that she wanted to sink those fangs into the pink-haired girl.

Louise struggled to get away, but to no avail. Her body refused to listen. She had the misfortune of being able to see and sense everything happening to her and yet was unable to do anything about it.

The blonde lady seemed to be savoring the moment as she tilted Louise's head to the side and then moved her mouth closer to Louise's exposed neck.

There wasn't much Louise could do now except hope that the bite wouldn't hurt, and that she would somehow survive this. For all her sophistication, the lady turned out to be some kind of monster in the end.

The anticipation was killing her and Louise at least managed to close her eyes, trying not to think anymore about what was about to happen and failing pitifully.

"ELENA!" yelled the familiar voice of Jade from across the room, and Louise never thought that hearing the sound of that voice would ever be so sweet.

The blonde lady, who was apparently named Elena, stopped a fraction of a second before her fangs could pierce Louise's skin.

Louise could feel her tense up.

"_What_ are you doing?" asked Jade, hands on her hips as she glared at the blonde like a mother might look at one of her troublemaker children that she had caught red-handed doing some mischief.

Elena's tongue darted across the side of Louise's neck and a strained look came over her face, as if she were struggling mightily with something. Her gaze wandered all across Louise's face and then to her exposed neck. There was a hunger in her eyes. Frightening and wild, but then she blinked several times and it faded.

To Louise's relief, the blonde lady close her mouth and moved her head away, turning to look at the armored warrior without letting go of Louise.

Elena took a deep breath, closing her eyes for a moment before she gave Jade a warm smile. "Oh hello Jade, darling," she said in greeting. "Long time no see."

"What do you think you're doing?" repeated Jade with a pointed glare.

Elena glanced down at the girl in her arms, "Why, I was just getting to know Louise here. Such a young little thing, this one. So very _fresh_, don't you think?"

"Louise?" Jade looked puzzled for a moment, her gaze shifting between them. "I see. Please step away from the girl, Elena. She is not your plaything," said Jade, her steely voice as hard as her gaze.

"Oh? Well, I didn't know that," replied the blonde innocently, though she made no move to comply. "Besides, it's not like I was going to _kill _her or anything so drastic. I just wanted a little taste, that's all. Only a nibble, really. One tiny bite. What's the harm in that?"

"I won't ask again," said Jade as she reached out her hand and with the sound of rushing air and sliding metal the spear that had stood at the entrance flew into her waiting palm, tip glowing briefly with power as it made contact with its owner.

"So much hostility, Jade! We haven't seen each other in centuries and this is how you greet your dear comrade-in-arms? No 'how are you doing, Elena? What have you been up to these last two hundred years? I've missed you'?" pouted Elena with a frown for a few seconds, but then the blonde's expression instantly changed into one of eagerness as she smirked, "Are you going to make me comply then?" Her red eyes glowed menacingly. Excitedly, even.

Jade was unfazed and pointed her spear at Elena. "If I must."

There was a tense moment as the two stared each other down, and Louise wondered who would win in a fight between the two. They both seemed incredibly powerful. Though perhaps the more important question was if she herself was going to survive if the two women decided to clash. There was likely going to be some collateral damage, and she didn't want to be a part of that.

"It's been a long time since anyone's challenged me," Elena said, sounding amused.

The lady warrior across the room said nothing, though her spear remained pointed at Elena.

"You know I could kill her before you could reach me," Elena stated plainly, as if she were merely remarking on the weather and not the life of a very much frightened young girl.

Louise gulped, still pretty much frozen and helpless in the blonde's strong grip, listening to the two as her life appeared to hang in the balance.

"Then you will answer to our Lord for disobeying orders to keep her alive, but only after I've punished you myself. But I hope you'll make the right decision here."

Elena's eyes narrowed, searching Jade's face for any signs of a bluff and finding nothing but a resolute look staring her down.

"Fine," sighed Elena, quickly letting go of the young girl and taking a few measured steps back, rubbing her well-manicured hands as if trying to get some dirt off of them. "But in my defense, I wasn't aware of any such orders. And I did say that I wasn't trying to kill her."

Louise fell on her butt with a thud, her legs weak and unable to hold herself upright on her own. She reflexively used her hands to soften her fall and her burned palm erupted in tremendous pain and she cried out. Whatever spell she had been under had apparently been lifted because she could move again.

Jade quietly lowered her spear and crossed the room, never letting Elena out of her peripheral vision. She knelt next to Louise and reached for her injured hand to get a better look.

The young girl made no move to resist, trusting that while Jade might not like her personally, the female warrior would at least obey her lord's command to keep her alive and thus would not harm her.

Elena crossed her arms across her busty chest. "That was your doing, not me," she remarked, turning her nose up.

Jade frowned slightly but said nothing. The warrior reached into a small pouch attached to her slim waist and took out a bottle of red liquid that seemed far too big to have fit in the pouch. Taking off the cork stopper, she poured some of the red liquid onto Louise's hand.

It stung at first, but then the pain gradually diminished and Louise watched as the burns and redness went away in a matter of seconds. A healing potion!

"Girl, in the future do not touch my spear. Or anything that you are unfamiliar with, for that matter," lectured Jade and Louise could only nod in response. The healing potion was returned to the pouch swiftly as the warrior inspected the injured hand one more time before letting it go.

Louise rubbed her now uninjured hand with her other one. "S-Sorry. Thank you," she managed to say as Jade got to her feet. She was definitely not going to get anywhere near that spear again if she could help it.

"What's so special about this girl anyway?" asked Elena, red eyes staring at Louise once again. "Other than the fact that she apparently has no underwear." The red-eyed blonde raised an eyebrow at the young girl, whose eyes went wide in embarrassment as she quickly shifted her sitting position so that the skirt covered her bottom properly.

Jade ignored the question. "Have you presented yourself to our master?"

"Yes, yes. Of course. How could I not? The throne room was the first place I checked when I got here. Only saw him very briefly though. He was in no mood to speak at length," replied Elena with a frown.

"The magic he used to seal himself away has taken a toll on him," stated Jade.

"It would seem so," agreed Elena, pensively looking at the ground. "Do you think he will stay with us now that he's returned? Or..."

"Our Lord will do as he pleases, as he has always done."

Elena snorted then grinned, red eyes alight. "Of course."

"You look well," Jade said, her normally hard tone softening somewhat.

"Thank you, dear. You don't look so bad yourself for someone who's been asleep for the last two centuries."

Jade looked at Elena suspiciously. "Wait. How did you know we were back? It's barely been an hour since we've awoken."

"Oh, it's not like I was waiting for you or anything," replied Elena, lazily waving a hand at her. "I was just in the neighborhood and decided to pop in. Chalk it up to fate I suppose."

"If you say so." Jade sounded unconvinced.

"There _is_ somewhat of a problem, however," Elena said seriously.

"What is it?"

"The fortress wards. They've failed. I noticed it when I got here. I tried to tell him but like I said, he was in no mood to speak."

Jade blinked. "What?"

Elena sighed. "The wards, Jade. They've been blasted through like paper."

"Which ones?"

"All of them. The whole area reeks of a recent massive magical explosion, which would explain it."

"Impossible."

Elena nodded, tucking some stray hair behind her ear. "It should've been, and yet here we are. I'm more interested to know how it happened and who was responsible."

"Those were some of the strongest defensive wards in the world, set up by the Demon Lord himself..." Jade trailed off and slowly turned to look at Louise, who was still sitting on the ground unsure of what to do with herself.

Elena noticed Jade's shift in attention and turned to Louise as well with renewed interest.

Louise looked down at her feet. Was it because of her? She didn't mean for any of this to happen.

"Are you saying..." Elena started to say, but Jade cut her off.

"Can you put up some defensive wards, Elena?"

"Well, I suppose I could but that's not really my area of exper-"

"Good," Jade interrupted again. "We'll make do with what you can muster until he can renew the wards himself."

Elena laughed, all tension between them clearly gone now. "Oh how I've missed this. I'll get right on it, dear Jade."

"Thank you," Jade said and then settled her gaze back to the pink-haired girl on the floor. "And you. Get up, girl. It's time to make yourself useful. There is still much to be done here."

**=x=x=x=x=**

Marcus was big for a vampire.

Generally, vampires tended to be on the slimmer side, similar to elves, but his barrel chest and matching thick arms and legs was one of the few rare exceptions among his kind. Even his thick facial hair was uncommon. His fellow vampires tended to be pretty hairless except for what they had on top of their heads.

Some might even mistake him for a lycanthrope from a distance, though they would do well not to mention that to his face. He hated the mangy beasts with a passion and to be likened to one was probably the worst insult to him that anyone could come up with. And Marcus was not someone to piss off.

As Captain of the Night Guard, he was one of the most powerful vampires in Nifleheim, both in authority and actual fighting strength. And he certainly looked the part with his extravagant high quality armor, clothing, and the black cape with a blood red crescent moon emblazoned on the back. Additionally, he was a veteran of many battles across the last two centuries since he had been turned into a vampire, by the Night Queen herself no less, and his loyalty to her was absolute because of it.

So it was that he answered her call without question to mobilize the entirety of the Night Guard for a mission that he knew nothing about in a location almost everyone sane these days would avoid. Now he was trudging through the Forest of Shadows and heading towards the Black Fortress accompanied by the full complement of three hundred and twenty nine vampires that made up the Night Guard.

They formed a battle line about a hundred soldiers wide and three rows deep as they moved quietly and adeptly between the trees, senses alert for any potential enemies. Ahead of them and far off the flanks were a handful of scouts, who on occasion returned to the advancing battle line and reported to him.

So far they hadn't encountered any enemies and it made everyone a little restless. They hadn't had to deploy like this in a very long time, and some of them were eager for battle. Others, particularly the newer members of the Night Guard, were simply hoping for a chance to prove themselves.

But they didn't see much as they made their way through the forest. Even animals were a rare sight, and the closer they got to the fortress the less wildlife they saw and the quieter it got. Marcus noted that the ground appeared to have dozens of fresh animal tracks, all of them leading away from the fortress, something that the scouts confirmed.

Something big definitely happened here recently.

"Captain," a scout called his attention as she appeared next to him. "There appears to be significant damage to the forest near the fortress. Signs of at least one significant magical explosion. Larger than any I've ever seen before."

"Still no sign of any enemies?"

"No, sir. Not a soul."

"And the Queen?"

"We haven't seen any sign of her either, sir."

"I see. Be cautious and keep looking," he said in a dismissive tone and the scout bowed her head and then rushed off to continue her duties.

Sure enough, as they continued to make their way through the forest, they noticed that some of the trees were bent, broken, or fallen over in an outward direction away from the fortress. Branches of all sizes littered the ground and there were a few dead animals too. Some of them, he noticed, were not directly targeted by anything but were actually killed by falling trees or large branches. And a handful were dead due to being trampled by other animals. Probably in their panic to get away. But from what?

With each step closer to the fortress, the air seemed to get heavier with excess magical energy and the damage to the foliage seemed to get worse. The night also got much quieter as they neared their destination. Apparently even the insects had either died or fled the area.

"Do you feel it, Kiho?" Marcus asked his lieutenant and the Night Guard's second-in-command who was following close behind him.

He was a typical vampire in almost every way. Tall and thin with blood red eyes and pale skin as cold as a corpse. His canine teeth were long and sharp and perfectly white like the rest of his normal teeth. Like Marcus, he wore the same armor set, except it was smaller and less decorated. Unlike Marcus though, his long dark hair was tied up into a bun atop his head.

Kiho looked puzzled for a moment, then realized what he meant. "The air here is full of magic energy, sir. Unnaturally so."

"Be on your guard," Marcus said. He had felt this before in larger-scale battles where there was a tremendous amount of magical energy being expended with various combat spells exploding all around. They were definitely entering dangerous territory now.

Before long, the trees began to thin out and then abruptly ended, causing them all to come to a stop as they reached the edge of the forest.

About a quarter mile of open ground separated the edge of the treeline from the fortress, and Marcus found himself staring up at the imposing walls of the Black Fortress, feeling a sense of dread that he had never felt before in his lengthy time as a vampire.

It was a magnificent sight to behold. The fortress was masterfully built into the very rock of the mountain, with untold numbers of halls and rooms carved deep within the black stone. What could be seen from the outside were the three layers of walls that separated the fortress into three distinct districts, each district higher than the last and each wall taller to match. Various structures populated the districts, some of them connected by bridges to each other.

High defensive towers were spaced along each of the walls, all of them dark and silent like stone sentinels standing guard. Along the tops of some of the buildings, walls, and towers were dark, unmoving statues of various monsters keeping a quiet vigil over the fort. Marcus had a feeling these things weren't merely for decoration. There were probably hundreds of them scattered throughout the place. No doubt some, if not all of them, would come to life to defend the stronghold if they were activated.

The only entrance into the fortress was a massive black gate made of a metal Marcus couldn't recognize. The sheer size of it was impressive, easily thirty times as tall as Marcus and wide enough for at least four horse-drawn carriages to move side-by-side.

At the heart of the fortress and within the very last set of walls was the massive keep only partially jutting out from the mountainside and towering over the entire facility, giving whoever was within a commanding view over the surrounding area.

Assaulting this stronghold directly was probably going to be disastrous for any army. At minimum, there would be significant losses for the attacking forces before the fortress could be taken, if at all.

Marcus couldn't help but admire the sight of it. The whole thing was probably almost as big as Nifleheim, and in some ways it was certainly grander than the city he called home. Compared to the city though, the fortress was dark and lifeless. Fitting, given the name of the place.

"Why exactly are we here, Captain?" asked Kiho with just a hint of nervousness in his normally confident voice.

"We're here because the Night Queen commanded us to be here," replied Marcus simply.

"But _why_? Why here of all places?"

Marcus continued to study the fortress in front of them, not bothering to give an answer. Truthfully, he didn't know why they were there either. Not that he really cared that much. His duty, and really all of theirs, was to serve the Night Queen and protect Nifleheim. If she gave them an order they were supposed to obey, and that was all he needed to know.

"Are you afraid of this place, Kiho?" Marcus asked.

Kiho hesitated for a moment, his red eyes scanning the empty battlements in front of them. "A little, sir. Are you?"

Marcus didn't answer. In truth, the unease he felt was certainly partly because he was somewhat afraid of the fortress and what might lie within. But he wasn't about to tell his subordinate that. That would be foolish.

"I've only ever heard about this place from stories or read about it in books. Never would I have thought I'd actually get to see it with my own two eyes," Kiho said.

"So you believe all the stories about the Black Fortress and the Demon Lord?"

"Some of them, sir. Yes. What about you, Captain?"

Marcus finally glanced at his subordinate. "Some," he agreed. "There is almost always a grain of truth to every story, no matter how outlandish it may seem. Though I doubt this place is actually cursed like the legends say. What's more likely is that the defenses are still working and the few people who have gotten close to it or attempted to enter it have actually encountered these defenses... and paid the price."

"That... makes sense."

"It's as impressive as they say it is, though. Perhaps even more so," Marcus admitted.

"I hope we're not here to attack this place, sir. It's better if we let places like this be."

"Mmm." Marcus crossed his arms, fingers tapping against his armor as a short silence settled between them.

Then the scouts returned and reported that the surrounding area was devoid of any signs of life. Even the mountainside around the fortress was apparently clear.

Marcus didn't like the situation at all. They had come expecting a fight, for why else would there be a need to summon all of the Night Guard so suddenly like this, and instead they found nothing but silence and a missing Night Queen.

He needed to think about what to do next, but in the meantime he ordered the Night Guard to form their battle squads and set up a perimeter around the fortress until further notice. Each squad consisted of seven vampires, which meant that there were 47 squads in all, and each had at least two capable veterans to lead the squad.

When the orders were relayed and the vampires began to move into position, he focused his attention on the fortress.

Closing his eyes, he concentrated on his sense of hearing and blocked everything else out. Seconds passed. He could hear the rustle of the armor and the slight murmur of the talking of the Night Guard gathered all along the forest edge. He could hear the subtle movements of Kiho behind him. The creaking of some of the trees in the breeze. The rustle of what few leaves remained on the trees. The breeze blowing all around.

But there was absolutely no sound at all coming from the fortress. It was quieter than the damned grave in there. That uneasy feeling in Marcus's gut was getting worse.

"It's strange, sir. There doesn't appear to be any damage to the fortress or any signs of battle at all," Kiho said with a confused look. "Yet something clearly caused all this damage to the forest and forced the animals to flee from here recently."

"Mmm."

"Could it have been the Queen?" Kiho speculated.

"Possibly," Marcus said with a slight frown.

"But where is she?"

Marcus's frown deepened.

The Night Queen was a formidable elder vampire, and arguably the strongest of the elders depending on who you asked. Regardless, she was far more powerful than Marcus could ever hope to be, and she was certainly more than capable of defending herself if she needed to. In fact, he was certain she could wipe out the whole Night Guard by herself if she desired.

He wouldn't be surprised if the explosion was somehow her doing then, but why did she do it? And where was she now? It bothered him that she was nowhere to be seen. She definitely should have been able to sense their arrival by now, and if so he knew she would have already made contact.

But she hadn't shown herself and Marcus couldn't rule out the possibility that something in the fortress managed to subdue her. Or worse.

He scratched his beard thoughtfully. What was he supposed to do now?

He absently rubbed the pommel of his longsword, a gift from the Night Queen herself. It was supposedly forged in hellfire in the demon realm, a relic from the time of the Demon Lord. Enchanted to enhance the wielder's fighting capabilities, the sword was also supposed to be able to cut through just about anything. And so far, he had yet to find something that could withstand more than a few hits from his sword.

Marcus was a soldier. How he wished for the pure simplicity of being thrust into battle and knowing where and at whom to swing his sword in order to bring about a victory. He kept his eyes closed as he considered his next move. Waiting around until something happened was not an option, and neither was retreating back to Nifleheim, which meant there was really only one thing they could do.

He turned to his own battle group that consisted of the seven best and most experienced warriors in the Night Guard, himself and Kiho included. They were the vanguard, leading the charge into every battle and laying waste to all who stood in their way. He could trust in them to get the job done, whatever that may be.

"Ready yourselves. We're going in," he stated firmly.

They all looked at him apprehensively. Even Kiho.

"Going in? As in, in _there?_" asked one of the vanguard members. His name was Regis. The shortest and youngest of the group, but also the fastest. He wore a long coat over his light armor, hands fidgeting in his coat pockets as his eyes darted every which way as if they were unable to focus on one thing for too long. Which was exactly the case.

"Afraid, Regis?" said a tall female with jet black hair. She had two nasty-looking daggers out, one in each hand, the weapons deftly dancing between her fingers. That was Katarina, deadly with pretty much any bladed weapon, but daggers were her favorite. She once said that she wielded daggers because it forced her to be really up close and personal with her opponent as she ended their life.

"No. Well, yes. I mean, I know we're all a little uneasy so... I'm just saying... have we considered knocking? Asking around? I mean, have you taken a good look at this place?" Regis replied, hands continuing to fidget in his pockets as he paced around the group.

"And who exactly are we going to ask? There's no one out here except us and whoever might be inside," said another of the vampires in the group. He had a deep voice, slightly accented. Ramsey was his name, and he was the strongest spellcaster among them. Offensive magic was his specialty, and fire magic in particular. With his shaved head and his dark skin, he stood out among his fellow vampires.

"Uhh... the people inside?" Regis shifted his weight back and forth on his legs. His eyes quickly moved between Katarina and Ramsey.

"Your stupidity is at an all-time high today," Katarina remarked, twirling one of the daggers in her left hand and then pointing it menacingly at the shorter vampire.

"I'm just saying attacking this place seems like a bad idea... okay? We shouldn't be so careless, that's all."

"And knocking on that gate isn't being careless?" asked Ramsey with a furrowed brow.

"That was a figure of speech, okay? Like, we should observe and scout it out some more, ya know? Look around and-"

"Oh grow a pair, would you?" replied Katarina, cutting him off.

"Kat's got more balls than you, that's for sure kid," Ramsey added.

"Just get a damned room, would ya? Everyone knows you're fucking anyway," Regis said.

"W-What are you talking about, kid?" Ramsey looked taken aback and started to rub the back of his neck as he glanced nervously towards Katarina.

She looked positively murderous.

The remaining two members of the group, Lora and Lara, were identical silver-haired twins who were only slightly taller than Regis. They were adept at various long range weapons as well as traps and magic. The two were decently skilled at close combat as well, but they preferred to fight from afar if they could help it. They were probably the most versatile of the group. Other than Marcus and Kiho, of course.

They shared a look with each other but stayed quiet as the other three bickered for another minute. Though it was more like Katarina and Ramsey teaming up against Regis.

"Quiet! That's enough from you lot," Marcus snapped at them, his red eyes glowing as he glared. They all avoided eye contact with him, but kept silent.

Marcus's eyes swept across the group as he let out a long sigh, reining in his anger. "I don't have to remind you that this place is a fortress, which means it probably still has defensive wards and traps everywhere. We must be careful. We'll probably need to focus our magic to breach the wards as we encounter them so everyone has to stick together. Is that clear?"

He received a few nods so he continued. "It's supposed to be abandoned, but we cannot know that for sure until we get in there, but let's assume that there are unknown enemies within. Our two primary objectives are to find Queen Marielena and capture the gatehouse so that we can open the gate. This will provide us a means to easily escape and also allow for reinforcements"

Before he could even continue, the ground beneath their feet began to shake violently.

"Earthquake?!" cried one of the twins in shock as they held each other.

Marcus didn't know if it was one, though it certainly felt like it, but then it was Kiho who pointed out that it was not an actual earthquake.

"The gate. Look! It's opening!" said the lieutenant.

They all stared in awe as sure enough the enormous gate began to open vertically. That was what was causing the earth to tremble beneath them.

"I told you we should have just knocked," Regis said wryly.

**=x=x=x=x=**

After sending Jade and the pink-haired mystery girl off to do some custodial work on his quarters, he returned to his throne and hadn't moved much since then. Even when Elena had surprisingly come before him, kneeling in her form-fitting crimson dress and going on about how much she had missed him, he had barely managed to acknowledge her.

He had told her that they would speak at a later date, most of her words falling on deaf ears because he was finding it incredibly difficult to concentrate. It did not escape him that she felt hurt and saddened by his abrupt dismissal of her, but there wasn't much he could do about that in his current state. He made a mental note to ask her how she knew so quickly that he had returned the next time they spoke.

His thoughts felt heavy and his mind a swirling fog. Each train of thought moved slowly as if they passed through some strange mental quagmire. Jumbled memories came to him in flashes, but the majority of his memory was incoherent and out of order.

In short, he was mentally a huge mess, and it was taking a lot of effort to try and put some semblance of order to his chaotic mind again.

There were things he could remember well enough, but many more that he couldn't recall at all no matter how hard he tried. Those memories were familiar but vague, like staring into the distance and recognizing the shape of things but unable to get any closer to see them clearly. Even names were somewhat difficult.

When Jade had entered the throne room earlier, it had taken him longer than he cared to admit to remember her name. Her face had looked intensely familiar, and he could picture her face in his memories, but the name that came with it had escaped him for long enough that he had become annoyed with himself. Not that he ever outwardly showed his annoyance.

Thankfully, he was able to finally recall her name and along with it who she was and so was able to interact with her well enough so as not to arouse any concern. And she certainly would have been concerned, given her personality and utter loyalty to him.

Elena had thankfully been proud enough to announce herself to him upon presenting herself, though perhaps it was also because he had barely registered her arrival. Hearing her voice and her name, plus seeing her face, was enough to jog his memory of her. She too, like Jade, was one of his most trusted followers a long time ago.

Two centuries had passed since then.

He glanced at his right gauntlet, flexing his armored fingers. Too much of his memory was missing or fragmented. He couldn't even remember why he had isolated and sealed himself away in the first place, and he wasn't entirely sure if this was a side effect of the sealing spell being violently broken by that pink-haired girl or if he had purposefully done this to himself.

Maybe even some combination of both.

Whatever happened before, it was serious enough that he put himself through such an ordeal in order to escape it. And a part of him wondered if it was wise for him to even try to remember.

Adding to his troubles was the fact that his power was currently vastly diminished. Regardless of what had happened to cause his self-imposed isolation, the sealing and stasis spell had sapped a considerable amount of his strength to sustain him for such a long period, and it would take some time to build it back up to his previous levels. And he wasn't sure if there were other spells he had cast on himself either.

That meant he needed plenty of rest. And plenty of mana baths.

Right on cue, Jade returned to the throne room. Her steps were purposeful like they always were as they echoed across the otherwise quiet hall. Kneeling before him, she waited to be acknowledged.

He stirred, fighting hard to concentrate on speaking. "You may stand, Jade."

"My Lord," she said as she got to her feet. "Your chambers are ready now. I apologize for taking so long. We are... understaffed at the moment."

That was an understatement if he had ever heard one. From what he could sense, other than Elena, the only other ones in the fortress were Jade and the girl. And though Jade was more than capable as a warrior, she was certainly no maid. She did take this whole master-servant thing very seriously though.

Oh Jade. As dutiful as ever.

"Good. No need to apologize, Jade," he assured her. "Is the mana spring still active?"

"Yes, my Lord. I anticipated that you might want to take a bath to regain your strength so I checked on it. The spring is still intact and the aquifer has filled to the brim over time. It is ready to be used once more and I can draw a bath for you now if you wish."

"Thank you, Jade. That would be nice." A nice bath certainly sounded like a good way to rest up some more and give him more time to sort out his mental state, and the mana water was going to be helpful in replenishing his power quicker. "What of the girl?"

"She has been marginally useful and is currently finishing up cleaning, but I will have her leave before you arrive, my Lord. If you will allow me to run ahead."

"No need. You will accompany me up to my chambers. It has been a long time and I want to make sure I still remember the layout of this place." He didn't say it, but he also wasn't sure how far he could walk on his own power at this point. He was really starting to feel weak and exhausted. And his head was starting to hurt.

"As you command," Jade bowed her head.

With some effort, he got to his feet and they left the throne room a moment later. Jade followed a step behind him and to his right as he managed to make his way to the spiral staircase without getting lost, the two of them walking in silence.

They were ascending the stairs when he finally spoke. Mind still heavy.

"I trust Elena hasn't been... troublesome?"

From what little he could reliably recall, Elena was certainly a mischievous one. A powerful vampire who was prone to giving in to her baser desires, which sometimes meant headaches for him and the others. Elena was playful, sometimes overly so, but she usually meant well. Usually.

"She is... just as I remember her, my Lord. But stronger now. Older. Maybe a little wiser even."

"One would hope," he said. He could feel Elena's power thrumming within her when she had appeared earlier. In his current state, he was sure that he would be hard-fought to win against her, if at all, and he wondered if the vampire could sense that as well. Not that she would ever let on that she did, nor did he think she would ever act on it.

As one of his closest servants, she was certainly someone he could count on and all indications from her arrival seemed to confirm that. Still, it had been a very long time since they were last together. Thoughts and feelings were prone to changing over time, whether one was an ageless immortal or not. He was going to have to keep an eye on her for the time being until he could be assured of her allegiance once more.

At least Jade had been time-locked like him, which meant that the warrior's thoughts and feelings were exactly the same as they were back then. She was, for now, the only one he could trust completely.

"Keep an eye on her for me," he said, "But try not to lock horns with Elena if you can help it. I'm not sure you could take her on your own anymore. I'll have to assess her current abilities myself some time. Until then, it's better to be cautious."

Jade seemed to bristle at the comment, but didn't say anything about it. "As you command, my Lord."

They arrived at the top of the stairs and walked into his chambers. Flashes of memories came to him as he explored each of the rooms, taking it all in. There had been many good times here, and some bad ones, but overall it was a pleasant mix of memories that surfaced from the mental fog that didn't seem to be going away anytime soon.

Jade followed him dutifully and quietly, waiting for him to command her. She had done a thorough job cleaning from what he could see, and he made a note to commend her on it later. Such a task was well below her station, but she had done it anyway since there was no one else to do it at the moment.

When they reached the bathroom, they found Louise in a crumpled heap in the corner, fast asleep. Her hands were still holding the rags and duster that she had been using to clean the room. She was so tiny and vulnerable and again he found himself amazed and confounded as to how she was able to break his sealing spell, one that not even his most powerful followers could crack. And they had most certainly tried their hardest from what Jade had told him.

"I'm sorry, my Lord. I'll remove this filth from your presence immediately, and I will be sure to discipline her for falling asleep on the job," Jade said with a mixture of anger and disgust. She moved to do just that but stopped when he raised his arm to block her path.

He shook his head. "There is no need for that, Jade. She is just a child."

"But a child must still be taught how to behave properly, sire! Especially when it comes to matters concerning you!" exclaimed Jade, before she reached a hand up to her mouth, looking mortified. She fell down to one knee and bowed her head, spear standing upright next to her on its own. "I'm sorry for my sudden outburst, my Lord. Please forgive my rudeness."

"You are forgiven," he placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "But I command you not to discipline her for this small incident. At least this once. She has worked hard and without complaint, yes?"

She blinked a few times, then nodded her head slowly. "I suppose that she has worked fairly hard, my Lord, and she has not complained. Though her cleaning skills are poor. She seems quite inept at physical labor."

His head began to ache so he started to rub his temples with his fingers. "Has she been fed?"

"No, sire. Our food stocks are empty at the moment," replied the warrior with the beginnings of a frown playing on her lips.

"I'm guessing that she is tired and hungry and yet still worked as best as she could given the circumstances. She is only human after all. There is no need to be so harsh then. She is not strong like you, Jade."

Jade glanced towards the sleeping girl. "I... understand."

"Speaking of being strong... are you not hungry as well, Jade?"

"I..." the warrior hesitated, brow furrowing ever so slightly, "I have not thought about it, sire."

"You are still human as well, at least mostly, which means that you also require food to sustain yourself. Do not forget that, Jade," he said sternly, "I need you at your best at all times, now more than ever, which means you must take care of yourself. Is that clear?"

"I understand and will do better, my Lord. You can count on me!"

"I know," he said as he withdrew his hand from her shoulder then grimaced slightly from the pounding in his head.

He really needed to sort out his mind as soon as possible. "Draw me a bath, then get the girl to her room. After that, I think it best if you go out and procure some food, whether it is by hunting or by purchase. We should still have some coin, yes? She will be hungry when she wakes up, and if we are to keep her alive she will need food. And more importantly you will need to eat as well."

"I have not had a chance to check the treasury, my Lord, but I will do so immediately. Though I think it best if I hunt for now and save the visit to the markets for a later date, when the fortress is in better shape. There are some... issues with our defenses."

He nodded in agreement while he watched Jade begin to run the bath. She also activated the warming enchantment of the tub so that the water would be nice and warm when he got in.

"What issues?" he asked, leaning against the tub as he was finding it hard to keep standing.

"You need not worry, sire. Elena and I are handling it for now."

"Very well. I shall leave it to you two then." He wasn't sure if he could even really do much about it at the moment anyway given his current state.

"And what about you, my Lord? Do you wish for me to serve a meal for you as well?" she asked.

He smiled for the first time that evening. "Why not? It's been ages since I last ate anything."

**=x=x=x=x=**

Elena watched with open amusement as the vaunted elite unit of the Night Guard warily approached where she was standing, passing underneath the gigantic metal gate of the outer walls of the Black Fortress.

Some of them couldn't help but look up at the massive gate in awe, and a little bit of worry too. The gate was thick and dense. It was also certainly wide enough that if it suddenly fell on them now some of them were sure to be crushed beneath its tremendous weight, even with their enhanced speed as vampires.

Leading the group was none other than Marcus Seinhaisse, the fearsome Captain of the Night Guard. He alone didn't appear to be worried about potentially being flattened by the thousand tons of otherworldly metal that hung a mere fifteen feet off the ground right above him. His red eyes were locked onto the Night Queen, undoubtedly confident that they were safe since she was there.

When they finally reached her without incident, they all knelt down respectfully, and it was Marcus who spoke up.

"I'm glad to find you safe, my Queen. The entire Night Guard is assembled outside the fortress as instructed and we await your orders."

Elena was silent as she stepped closer to Marcus. She pressed a hand up against his rugged cheek, fingers playing for a moment with his beard.

The sudden touch of affection appeared to make the captain uncomfortable, but he didn't make a move to stop her. Nor did he say anything. The others pretended not to notice.

"I'm glad that you all arrived so quickly," she said with a winning smile, retracting her hand. It was always fun to make him squirm a bit. "I called you out here because I thought there might be some trouble brewing here, but it appears that something even more exciting is happening. That being said, there is no need for all of you to be here anymore. Unfortunately, there is no one for you all to fight here. At least, not anyone that you would want to fight."

She could see all sorts of questions cross each and every one of their faces, but no one dared to voice them. Not even Marcus.

Elena turned and looked around at the massive fortress, empty and lifeless. To have this place returned to its former glory would bring her no end of joy. And surely once the place was back up and running like a proper fortress with her help, her master would be more inclined to stay with them and perhaps begin a new campaign. The return of her master was certain to once again upset the balance of power across the continent, and things were going to get very interesting once again.

"I take it that your scouts have searched the surrounding area thoroughly?" she asked, looking directly at Marcus, who bowed his head. He still looked a little embarrassed but he did his best to answer in an even tone.

"Yes, your eminence. There are no signs of life within a two mile radius of the fortress, though we only scouted the lower elevations of the mountain that the fortress is built into," Marcus reported, "Other than the damage from to the forest from a magical explosion, there were numerous animal tracks in the forest all leading away from here, fairly recent. That was all that the scouts reported seeing."

"Have your scouts check again. Expand the search radius this time. Look for any signs of a camp or lookout. Make sure they are thorough, the camp I speak of is likely to be well hidden. Search the whole forest if need be."

"A camp, my Queen?" Marcus looked surprised.

"Yes. I'm certain that the enemies of the old Demon Lord are keeping watch over his fortress. He may have disappeared centuries ago, but they would be extremely foolish not to have an outpost keeping an eye on things in case of his return."

"Yes, your grace. What should we do if we find someone at the camp?"

"Oh, no need to worry. You won't," she replied. "I'm sure they've fled by now if they're smart and doing their job properly. But if the scouts do somehow come across a straggler, then they must capture them alive and bring them straight to me. Is that clear?"

"Should we track them from their camp if they aren't there?"

Elena thought for a moment, then gave a single nod. "Yes. Track them but tell the scouts to keep their distance. They must not know that we're following them. I want to know where they go and who they report to."

Marcus opened his mouth to say something else then closed it. He was probably about to ask why, but instead he nodded. "Yes, your eminence. I'll have the scouts go back out at once."

That's why she favored the big vampire. He was always so obedient and didn't really ask any questions. An excellent and very capable servant that she could rely on to carry out her orders to the letter.

Her gaze swept back across the kneeling vampires, a few of them were furtively casting glances at each other. She could tell what was on their minds now. They wanted to know why she was in the Black Fortress, and what caused her to summon them here with such urgency, but she wasn't going to let them in on what was going on just yet. They were going to figure it out eventually.

Besides, it was more fun to hear the rumors they would come up with later on. And she sure did love to have fun. Especially now, when things were starting to get really interesting once again.

"Marcus, you may send half of the Night Guard back to Nifleheim under the direction of your second. Kiho, was it?" She glanced at the black-haired lieutenant.

"Yes, your highness," Kiho bowed his head low, speaking quickly. "I am honored that you know my name, your highness."

"Of course. Marcus speaks highly of you," she said, noting how Kiho quickly looked over towards the big captain with gratitude and respect.

You're welcome.

Marcus didn't seem to notice.

Returning her attention to the captain, she continued. "They are to operate as usual. You will remain here with the other half and assist me in a project of great importance. Oh, and please have someone fetch Bartho for me. He'll be needed here as well. I will meet you back here at the gate in... shall we say twenty minutes?"

With that she twirled around and walked away, not waiting for a response and leaving them with many unanswered questions.

She couldn't wait to hear the rumors they spread.

**=x=x=x=x=**

"HYAH!" he yelled as he spurred his horse on.

Trees and underbrush whizzed by dangerously in the dim moonlight, and he got hit more than a few times by low branches. He almost fell off twice and his horse had stumbled several times as well. Thankfully they continued to stay upright and on track.

His horse seemed to understand the sense of urgency and moved swiftly as she could. She was bred for hard riding like this, though probably not in the dark.

They pressed on through the night though, careful to take a path through the Forest of Shadows that he knew had the least amount of trees, holes, and rocks to deal with to minimize the chances of an accident to either him or his horse that might delay him.

This was supposed to be an easy assignment. One that would lead him into a soft and early retirement. The pay was high because of the distance and the potential danger. Plus the assignment was for long periods of time, but it was worth it because hardly anything ever happened. He had been doing this assignment for well over twelve years now and never saw anything of note or felt any danger.

Easy money, or so he had thought.

He came upon a small lake that he had to go around, and the horse began to slow a bit. From here, it would take him half a day to reach the nearest outpost where he could file his report and finally get some rest. Normally, he would have taken his time and a few breaks on his way there, maybe even gone fishing, but the news that he carried was of paramount importance.

The Empire needed to be notified at once. This was his job after all. He had a duty to fulfill. Plus, he was sure that there was going to be a bonus to his pay for this. And maybe early retirement would follow.

Because for the first time in over two hundred years, there was significant movement in the Black Fortress.

**=x=x=x=x=**

**Author's Note: **I'm actually having a lot of fun writing this haha and upon further internal debate as well as some of your input, I'll be sure to add in some snippets of the goings on back in Halkeginia. Probably the first glimpse will be sometime in the next chapter or two. :)


	4. Chapter 3

** X**

**Unfamiliar Zero**

**Chapter 3  
****=x=x=x=x=X****=x=x=x=x=**

Louise slowly stirred from the clutches of sleep.

She had just come out of what had to be the craziest dream she had ever had in her life. Somehow the summoning ritual had gone awry and she had been transported to an unknown far away land where she met some clearly dangerous and terrifying characters. And there was this massive castle that seemed far too large for the number of people who appeared to live in it. On top of that, she had even been forced into service as a maid under the implied threat of death!

It had felt so real. Too real.

But it was over now, thankfully. Her anxiety over the summoning ritual must have really been messing with her mind for her to dream of something so elaborate.

She turned over in her bed, eyes still firmly shut, and winced. Her body ached. Every muscle felt sore and abused. Why did she feel so exhausted? She didn't think she had been studying that long for the summoning ritual to get so stiff and tired. That was happening today, wasn't it?

"Oh, you're finally awake," said a strangely familiar voice, sultry and sophisticated. There was a rustle of bed sheets next to Louise.

She froze. Someone was in her room. And in her bed.

Slowly, she opened her eyes.

A beautiful pale face framed with blonde locks filled her vision. Red eyes stared back at her with interest.

Louise blinked. Then she yelped and sat up so quickly that her body took a second before it protested the swift movement by reminding her about how tired and achy all her muscles were. Such moves were very much discouraged by her tired body at the moment.

Lying in bed next to her, very much real and present, was the blonde lady from her dream.

She no longer wore the form-fitting red dress from before. Instead, she had on a simple white gown of silk that looked like something she normally slept in. It was quite revealing, given her shapely proportions, and Louise felt some heat rise to her cheeks as she tried not to look any closer, which was difficult considering how uncomfortably close they were right now given how small the bed was. It was hardly big enough to accommodate the two of them.

Had the lady slept in the same bed with her? Why was she here?

A quick glance around the room also confirmed that she was not actually in her bedroom at the Academy.

"W-What... Who...?" She failed to form a coherent sentence as her mind raced, confused and groggy. Her throat felt dry. Was she still dreaming? Once before she had a dream within a dream, but this didn't seem like it at all. Was it not actually a dream then?

"Good morning! We weren't properly introduced last time and I do apologize for that. I may have gotten a little..." she paused either for dramatic effect or to find the right word, "Enthusiastic... about meeting you for the first time last night," the blonde said with a toothy grin, showing her now familiar fangs. "I already know your name, Louise, so allow me to introduce myself. My name is Marielena von Nifleheim, but you may simply call me Lady Elena."

So she was a noble after all.

"P-Pleased to meet you, Lady Elena," Louise managed to say. That was probably the right response, even though she instinctively wanted to yell at the lady and throw her out for climbing into her bed without permission. But it was easy to suppress that instinct given that the lady in question most likely could easily end her life if she were so inclined.

"Oh the pleasure's all mine, dear."

Louise had never heard of the von Nifleheim family though, but it did sound Germanian. Maybe that meant that she was currently in Germania? That was entirely possible. And also not a good thing since Germania was not necessarily on the best of terms with the Kingdom of Tristain the last time she checked.

But what was Lady Elena doing in her bed? And how did Louise get into bed anyway? The last thing she remembered was cleaning the bathroom of the master chambers and then feeling so tired that she decided to close her eyes to rest for a little while. Obviously she had fallen asleep longer than intended, but she was surprised that she was brought back down here without being woken and berated.

Had Lady Jade actually carried her down here?

"You know, Jade wanted to wake you up around two hours ago," said the blonde as if reading Louise's mind, "But I managed to convince her to let you rest a little longer. You looked like you needed it." The lady adjusted herself into a more comfortable position while she spoke.

"Thank you, Lady Elena," she managed to say without difficulty, although she felt an itch in her throat. Her mind was finally waking up and starting to work properly, ridding itself of the last vestiges of sleep fog.

Louise considered telling the lady that she was nobility too, but thought better of it. If Lady Elena didn't recognize her family name, what use was there in telling her that? Besides, if she was indeed in Germania, revealing such information could backfire and cause her trouble.

Louise swallowed. Or at least tried to. Her throat was very parched and she ended up launching into a rather prolonged coughing fit, which she covered up with her hands.

Elena briefly gave her a disgusted look and then reached out a hand.

At first Louise didn't know if she was supposed to grasp it or what as she continued to cough, but then a glass of water floated into the lady's outstretched hand from somewhere behind Louise and then was offered to her.

Unsurprisingly, Lady Elena was able to use magic. She was a member of the nobility after all.

Louise took it and gulped down the liquid greedily, some of the water spilling out the sides of her mouth.

"Ahh... Thank you, L-Lady Elena," Louise said softly after downing the whole glass of water. The coughing stopped as the cool liquid soothed her dry throat.

There was an amused twinkle in the woman's eye as she studied the girl.

"Do you want some more?" asked Elena.

Louise nodded quietly.

A whole pitcher of water suddenly floated next to Louise from somewhere behind her.

"Help yourself, dear," Elena said encouragingly.

Louise stared at the floating pitcher and then glanced towards the blonde woman. She repeated this twice before she finally took hold of it and poured herself another glass. She drank a few more glassfuls after that before she felt satisfied, keenly aware that Elena was watching her the whole time without saying a word.

It made her feel like she was some prize animal put on display, or some strange experiment being studied by academic researchers.

When Louise was finished with the pitcher of water, it rose into the air out of Louise's grasp and moved towards the nightstand next to the bed where it had been sitting earlier. Apparently, Elena didn't even really need to gesture or look at what she was manipulating with magic to move it.

Louise held her partially full glass of water with both hands as she knelt on her bed, warily keeping an eye on Elena who looked extremely relaxed as she lay on her side. The first time they met she had tried to bite her, and here they were now alone in her room without Jade to protect her. She reached up with a hand and brushed the side of her neck with her fingers, checking for any bite wounds.

As if reading her thoughts, Elena let out a small laugh that sounded quite pleasant and said, "Don't worry, dear. I won't bite. Not this time at least. Though I will admit I was quite tempted to while you were sleeping. You looked so very cute and scrumptious."

"Y-You slept here...?"

"Me sleep here? Goodness no," she responded as her eyes swept the room with a look of disdain before settling once more on Louise, "I came in maybe half an hour ago. I thought you might want a few things since it seemed like you were... lacking some necessities." She pointed to a bag that lay on top of the small dresser in the room.

Louise blushed, remembering that it was Lady Elena who had noticed her lack of undergarments last night, and thanked her. She assumed that's what was in the bag.

"Consider it an apology for our initial encounter," said the blonde lady with a small smile.

Louise absently rubbed her neck where Elena tried to bite her before. She had to remember to be careful around this lady.

"Lady Elena. This... This is real, isn't it?" Louise asked, her fingers rubbing the cool, damp glass in her hand as water started to condense on the outside of it.

"The glass of water? I would think so, dear. You just drank a gallon of it I think," Elena replied with a mixture of confusion and amusement.

"N-No! I meant... I meant this place. You. Jade. That... That demon on the throne. This is all real. It's... not a dream, I mean."

Elena shifted so that she rested her head on her hand, elbow bent to support her while she continued to face Louise. "Oh yes. All of this is quite real, dear. Very much so."

Louise looked down at the glass in her hands. It wasn't a dream after all.

"But I'd be happy to give you a hard slap across the face to try and wake you if you think that might help ease your mind in some way," offered Elena with a little too much eagerness.

Louise immediately shook her head. "No thank you!"

Elena laughed. "Pity."

"Lady Elena," Louise said after another short silence, "Where... where are we? What is this place?"

The blonde looked mildly surprised. "Huh? You don't know?"

Louise shook her head.

"Before I answer, it would probably be helpful if I know where you're from first," replied Elena, looking very much intrigued with what she had to say.

"I s-suppose..." Louise said, taking a deep breath. "I'm actually a second year student at the Tristain Academy of Magic, which is located near the city of Tristain, capital of the Kingdom of Tristania."

Elena looked surprised, and then narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Tristain? Tristania? I've never heard of such places. They sound made up. Why are you lying to me?" There was an edge to her voice that frightened Louise.

"I swear I'm not lying!" she cried in dismay, raising her hands in a calming gesture towards the blonde lady and almost knocking over the water tucked between her legs now. "I swear that's where I'm from! Really! Please, you must believe me."

Elena studied her face for a while and then sighed. "Very well. I believe you, Louise. But unfortunately for you I also speak the truth when I say I've never heard of such places. And I know every country and major city in the entire continent. Tristain and Tristania are most definitely not among them. You appear to be a very long way from home, my dear. How interesting!"

"That... That can't be..."

Louise felt disheartened. She thought that she might be able to find a way home somehow if she could at least figure out where she was, but how far had she really gone? Could she really return home? If Tristain didn't exist in this entire continent, then where in the world was she?

"I'm afraid so, dear. You're currently in the continent of Azuria, in fact. We are in what is informally known as the Dark Territories. Officially, however, these territories are known as the Eastern Territories or the Shadowlands, depending on who you ask. They are, as you might have guessed, in the eastern part of the continent."

"Azuria...? This isn't Halkeginia?"

"Halke- what?"

"Halkeginia. That's... that's the continent where I'm from. Tristania. Germania. Albion. Gallia. Romalia. Those are the countries in Halkeginia."

Elena shrugged. "Never heard of any of those places, I'm afraid. This is definitely not Halkeginia, or anywhere near it for that matter."

"There must be other continents then..."

"Certainly. There's Ethiros and Igdria. And most recently discovered on the far side of the world, New Ethiros. Which, if you ask me, is a fine display of a total lack of imagination, but that's sometimes what you get when a group of fools go off exploring the world," she let out an exasperated sigh, "Back to the point, there is no Halkeginia that exists here, and the explorers - the reputable ones at any rate - are sure that they've discovered all the major landmasses in this world by now."

"Perhaps it's called something else?"

"If it was, I would know about it. You might say that I'm an... avid collector of information." Elena gave what was quickly becoming her trademark smirk.

"Well," Louise said with the last vestiges of hope that her home was in the same world, "What if they haven't come across it yet?"

"Like I said, dear, there have been plenty of expeditions to explore the world and it's pretty much entirely mapped already. We can find a world map for you, if you'd like to see it yourself."

Louise took another sip of water. This was bad. If what Lady Elena said was true, then that meant she was in a completely different world. How was that even possible? She wasn't capable of magic that would take her to other worlds. She was barely capable of doing any magic at all! And the only thing she did recently was... the summoning ritual.

That was it! The summoning ritual. It was supposed to summon a familiar to the caster's side, a real live being that existed elsewhere, and part of the ritual was determined by the incantation. And her incantation did include finding a familiar somewhere in this universe, which meant there were multitudes of worlds to choose from. But because she was so bad at magic it must have backfired and sent her to another world instead!

Maybe she just had to do the ritual again and it would bring her back? She thought about it some more, then realized that while it was definitely possible it would work, it was also very risky. There was no guarantee that it wouldn't simply send her off to yet another world, one less hospitable than the one she was already in. And this world had almost been the death of her right from the start. No, doing the ritual again was probably going to end in disaster. But how was she going to get back?

"If you want to learn more, you could always read the books in the library," Elena said, then asked as an afterthought, "You _can_ read, right?"

"Y-Yes, I can read, Lady Elena." She was elated to discover that there was a library here. Books were a good place to start finding a way back home.

"That's good. If memory serves, the collection here at the Black Fortress is one of the largest that I'm aware of, so you're in a good place to study up on any subject you might fancy delving into. Might I suggest geography?" mused Lady Elena.

"The Black Fortress," Louise repeated. So that's what they called this place. The name sounded ominous, though from what she had witnessed so far that did seem to be rather appropriate.

"That's right. And you've apparently already met the master of this place."

Louise shuddered as she remembered the utter fear she felt in that throne room.

"Yes, he does have that affect on people sometimes," Elena said, amused. "But you should feel honored to have met him and survived. Not only that, you've even been granted a chance to live within these walls. Quite the blessing, if I do say so myself."

"A blessing? I nearly died!" Louise looked incredulously at her, but the woman appeared to really believe the words she had just spoken.

"But did you die?" Elena asked with a smirk. "You just met a true Demon Lord, one of the most powerful beings of this world, and are now allowed to serve him and live under the same roof at his discretion. Some would kill for that chance," explained Elena seriously.

Louise was finding it hard to see how this was supposed to be a blessing. Living with a demon was probably the most dangerous thing someone could possibly do. And why would anyone want to live with one anyway? Demons were known to be creatures of darkness and therefore they were evil! Louise was most definitely not evil, and in fact she wanted to become a strong magic knight one day so that she could fight _against _evil, not serve it.

"But he's... a demon," Louise said.

"Demon Lord," Elena corrected her, wagging a finger playfully. She apparently didn't see anything wrong with this at all.

"Lady Elena," Louise looked straight into her red eyes. "Aren't demons evil? They're _demons_... terrible beings who bring misfortune, death, and destruction to the world! Surely you can't be seriously happy to serve a Demon Lord?"

Although now that she thought about it some more, Lady Elena did try to bite her when they first met. Her fangs, her red eyes. It was possible she was some kind of monster that looked like a human, which would make serving the Demon Lord not a problem for her. Louise tried not to think about that possibility too much.

Elena gave her a curious look. "Are demons evil because they're demons? Who says they're evil?"

"Everyone!" she replied, incredulous. "That's why they're demons!"

"Everyone? _I_ don't think they're evil and I know plenty of others who think similarly. At least not all of them are evil. Not that I've met many demons myself, but that's beside the point," she replied, "My Lord can be cruel, merciless, and downright frightening at times, which is also quite sexy if you ask me, but he's not some manifestation of evil or anything. He knows what he wants and will go to great lengths to make sure his goals are met, his interests are secure, and his enemies are broken and defeated. Does that sound evil to you?"

She paused as Louise considered her words, then continued. "Think of it this way. There are humans capable of the most evil things imaginable, right? Humans hurt and kill each other all the time. Wars are fought, backs are stabbed, misery is spread, and yet you don't go calling all humans evil simply because they're humans, do you?"

"N-No, but..." Louise blinked, unsure of what to say to that. The lady did have a point. Still. A demon was supposed to be evil, wasn't it? Weren't they born evil? Raised to be evil? Wasn't that why they were called demons in the first place?

"Louise. Have you ever met a demon? Gotten to know one? Other than my Lord, of course."

Louise shook her head. She had only ever read or heard about them in folklore and myth. It would be quite the uproar if demons roamed all around Halkeginia after all. Besides, if she ever got to know a demon as she knew them to be, it would probably be the end of her.

"Then how can you be so sure that demons are evil?"

Louise shifted uncomfortably under Lady Elena's watchful eye. "But... all the books... and stories..."

"Are written and told by non-demons," Elena said, "There are always two sides to a story. I'm not saying all demons are good, but what I am saying is that not all demons are evil. And really that's applicable to all races if you think about it. Some are really good, some are really bad, and all of us are some mixture of both when it really comes down to it."

Louise frowned. Lady Elena was making too much sense. The young girl had been brought up with this general idea that there was a distinct line between those who were good and those who were evil, that it was easy to tell which was which, but now she wasn't so sure.

"Do you think I'm evil?" asked Elena, reaching up to run a hand through her golden hair.

The question caught Louise so off-guard she stammered to reply, careful to make sure she didn't anger the lady. "Uh.. n-no! Of c-course not!"

"Now, now. Be honest with me, Louise," the lady said sternly. "I promise you that whatever your answer, I won't be upset."

Louise was silent for a while, and like when they first met Elena patiently waited for her to respond. Again she wasn't entirely sure if she could trust this woman, but the alternative was to lie again and she was admittedly a pretty terrible liar.

"I... can't say. I don't know you well enough." Louise simply didn't have enough information. While Elena did try to bite her before, she didn't, thanks in no small part to Jade. Now she seemed to be acting fairly normal though. Friendly even. Certainly different than before.

"Now that's an honest answer." Elena nodded, satisfied. "To be fair, I'm not so sure about you either." The lady smiled as she said that.

"I-I'm definitely not evil!" Louise exclaimed, shocked that anyone would even consider her to be evil. She was a good girl!

"We'll see," said the lady, letting out a quick laugh.

"I'm not evil," repeated Louise firmly.

With a thoughtful look Elena said, "We can discuss this all day, but I tire of the subject so I'll leave you with this thought: good and evil, right and wrong... if you think about it, and I mean _really_ think about it, that distinction all depends on how you were raised and what you were taught. What you've experienced in your life thus far. Who you hang out with. Because what you might think is evil, someone else might think is good. And the opposite holds true as well. You might think you're doing good, but someone else considers what you're doing to be evil."

Louise's mind was swirling and starting to hurt. Both from the revelation that she was not in Halkeginia anymore and probably as far away as she could possibly be from home and also from all this surprisingly deep discussion about good and evil with the red-eyed noble lady.

"Well, that's what I think anyway." Elena sighed and said, "Experience is the best teacher though, so you'll figure out what you really think about it all eventually. Hopefully spending more time in the presence of Lord Kaji and the rest of us will help you see that the world isn't all black and white, good and evil. Most of it is shades of gray, a mixture of both light and dark."

That was a lot for Louise to think about, though she did have one pressing question. "Who is Lord Kaji?"

Elena plopped her head back onto a pillow and looked up at the ceiling. "My master, of course. His name is Arkajian. Demon Lord Arkajian. Although he might instruct you to just call him Lord Kaji like he's told the rest of us. I'm sure you'll find out soon enough whether you consider him evil or not, and I'd be interested to hear your thoughts when you do."

**=x=x=x=x=**

Jade Fazier rarely met a task she could not accomplish. Any task that proved difficult or challenging she would redouble her efforts and find a way to get it done. And she always got it done. She was disciplined, determined, smart, and athletic with years of experience out in the field as a scout, warrior, general, and adviser to the great Demon Lord Kaji.

But she was most definitely no cook.

In fact, other than roasting game over a firepit while out on scouting missions, and those had been mostly charred, she had rarely cooked any meals in her life.

For the last few hours she had been trying with frustratingly little success to cook and season the venison and rabbit meat she had gone out hunting for. She meant to cook a nice venison steak for her master and some rabbit stew for herself, Elena, and the girl. While it sounded easy enough, she was finding it hard to properly gauge just how long to cook things as well as when to add other ingredients like vegetables and spices, which the butler had brought over from Elena's mansion.

At least she had the good sense to only cut up small pieces at a time so that she wasn't wasting too much of the meat. However, in the past few hours she had used up a significant amount of it, most of it ending up in the garbage heap.

"Lady Jade, perhaps I may be of some assistance?" spoke the gray-haired butler who had been standing by for the entirety of the process.

Elena had brought him along from Nifleheim. His name was Bartholomew, or Bartho for short. He had offered to help in the beginning, but she adamantly refused because she had promised to cook Lord Kaji's meal personally. And she would be damned if she was not going to follow through on it.

The butler did not protest or try to convince her otherwise, simply accepting her decision and keeping quiet all this time as he watched from the sidelines. He made no comments nor did he display any reactions as she failed again and again to properly cook the meals the way she envisioned.

"Be quiet, you! I said I'll cook it myself," she practically growled as she threw away another chunk of charred venison.

The butler bowed his head for a while, but then boldly spoke again some time later after another failed attempt, "My Lady, forgive me for my rudeness..."

Jade's spear was somehow in her hands in a flash and the blade was now pressed against the butler's neck. He made no move to dodge while this happened as he raised his arms in a show of surrender. A trickle of crimson blood flowed along the razor sharp edge of her spear as they both stood still.

"I thought I told you to be quiet," she growled with frustration, both at her continued failure and at the disobedient butler.

"... but if I may, my Lady, I can show you how I would cook these dishes and then you can do it yourself. I am only here to be of service."

Jade's emerald eyes glared into his red ones as he offered her a friendly smile, unafraid of the sharp blade that could cut open his throat at any moment.

That meant she would still be cooking the meal herself, but just following Bartho's guidance on how to cook it properly. She had already wasted so much time and resources, and she wasn't sure when her master was going to awaken. She needed his help and they both knew it.

"You will speak of this to no one," she ground out as she retracted her spear. The red-orange metal glowed and the blood that had been on it immediately evaporated with a sizzle.

The butler bowed at the waist this time, gloved hand pressed against his chest. The cut on his neck was already healed as if it had never happened.

"Yes, Lady Jade."

**=x=x=x=x=**

Elena looked down at the bowl of rabbit stew that Jade had prepared for her.

It looked edible enough, and the smell wasn't unpleasant. But she knew Jade well enough to know that she couldn't cook, and so she was very apprehensive about actually eating it.

Across the table from her sat Jade, who seemed to have no trouble digging in to her own bowl of the stuff. Normally, that might make anyone feel more inclined to eat their own bowl, but again Elena knew that Jade could eat pretty much anything so long as it wasn't spoiled or rotten. So seeing her eat a bowl of her own cooking did nothing to inspire confidence that the food wouldn't taste bad.

Unlike herself, Jade did not seem to have a very discerning sense of taste. Thankfully, poorly cooked foods wouldn't really hurt either of them too much. They both had incredibly strong constitutions that could withstand most common poisons, while the effects of more potent poisons would be reduced. Herself especially, being a vampire. Bad tasting or poorly cooked food was not necessarily a health risk, but neither was she going to go out of her way to eat bad tasting food.

Her attention then turned to the only other person seated at the table.

Louise, dressed in her still very loose maid outfit, was wolfing down her own bowl without any complaint. The girl was certainly famished though, so again she wasn't exactly the best indicator. Studying her closely, Elena couldn't find any indications that the meal was repulsive to the young girl in any way.

She looked back down at the bowl set in front of her, still steaming a little.

"Are you not hungry, Elena?" Jade asked, wiping her mouth with a cloth napkin. Her bowl was now empty.

Elena gave her a fake smile. "Oh, I'm just admiring how it looks before I dig in."

"You should eat before it gets cold," advised the warrior.

"Of course," replied the vampire, "Wouldn't want to eat a cold meal now, would we?"

She lifted her spoon and placed it into the bowl.

Jade looked on with interest.

"I didn't realize you knew how to cook, Jade," Elena said, stalling.

"I'm still learning, actually. But I think I did a good job on this one," Jade said with pride, then she gave the vampire a look. "Are you going to eat it or not?"

Taking some of the stew in her spoon, Elena raised it up to her mouth and took another sniff. It definitely smelled okay. And it looked okay too. Well, there was no holding off now. She could practically feel Jade's eyes boring into her. Time for the moment of truth.

She opened her mouth and placed the spoonful of stew in. And froze.

It was bad. But surprisingly, it was not 'I want to spit this out immediately' bad. More like a 'this is not very good and I'm not really enjoying this but it's still kind of edible' bad. This was actually an improvement over what she remembered Jade capable of cooking long ago, if that could have even been called cooking.

"Well?" Jade looked at her eagerly.

"It's... really something," Elena managed to say after she forced herself to swallow the concoction that was apparently rabbit stew. She shivered, but forced a small smile in the direction of the warrior.

Jade looked pleased with herself. "I hope Lord Kaji will enjoy the meal I'll prepare for him, whenever he awakens."

Elena carefully placed the spoon back on the table. The bad taste continued to linger in her mouth and she felt the need to wash it out.

"He's still asleep?" she asked while she reached for her cup of tea. She jokingly hoped that he wouldn't be knocked unconscious by whatever Jade planned on cooking for him. They had only just gotten him back after all.

"Yeah," replied the warrior sadly, "He's locked himself in his chambers and when I call out to him he doesn't respond, so he must still be sleeping. He seemed very tired when I drew that bath for him last night so he must really need the rest."

"You didn't go in to check on him since then?"

Jade tapped her fingers on the wooden table. "Like I said, the door is locked. There's also a magic barrier placed on it, so it would certainly take a significant amount of power to break it down. Not to mention his personal wards around his chambers are apparently up and running."

Elena sighed. That meant their master seriously did not want to be disturbed. What a shame. He had only just come back and now he was isolating himself again. She had hoped to have that long talk with him today. There was so much to update him on and to ask him about now that he was back. Well, she had been waiting for him for two centuries, what's another few hours or days?

"You don't think he's already sealed himself off again, do you?" she said with sudden concern as the thought struck her.

"No. Not at all," came the quick reply from the warrior. "Right now, I don't think he has the strength to cast whatever that was he did before to seal himself away. Besides, that magic felt very different from what I'm feeling coming from his chambers."

Elena breathed a sigh of relief.

"How are the wards you put up doing?" asked Jade as she drank some of her own tea, changing the subject.

"They should work fine for now. I doubt anyone will attack the fortress anytime soon. Besides, I have my Night Guard patrolling the forest and the mountain. We can head off any threats before they reach the fortress if need be. And if it comes down to it, the main defense magics are still functional. Only the protective wards have failed, so we'll be more than okay even if we had to fight here. Besides, now that Lord Kaji has returned, we have little to worry about."

"This Night Guard of yours," started Elena as she sniffed at her tea. "I don't remember ever hearing of them before. You mentioned that they're all elite fighters from the vampire clans of Nifleheim and that they are your strongest fighting force."

"They are." Elena could already see where this was going.

"How good are they, really? How much battle experience do they have?" Her emerald eyes sparked with excitement and leaned closer to the table. There was no denying her warrior's spirit.

"Jade, darling, you've fought vampires before haven't you? Perhaps you should find out their competence for yourself. I can bring out a few of my best for you to spar with at the arena later."

Jade looked away, feigning disinterest, "Oh, I probably shouldn't-"

"I insist. It would be a win-win for everyone if you did," she told the warrior with a toothy grin.

"A win-win?"

"You get to show off, shake the rust from being on ice for two centuries, and gauge the level of skill of my fighters. In turn, my fighters get some training by fighting you. And they'll also learn that not all humans are weaklings," she explained, "It's been a long time since any of them have fought with humans who could keep up. Plus, I'm sure to be mildly entertained by the whole spectacle."

The warrior had that eager look in her eye that wasn't quite bloodlust, but it was something similar. She did well to keep her face calm in comparison. "Well, if you insist..."

"Will two hours be sufficient time for you to prepare?"

Jade looked at her quizzically. "Am I supposed to prepare? I'm in my armor and my spear is right here."

"One hour then."

With a shrug, Jade took another sip of her tea. Her spear was standing upright on the floor next to her chair, red-orange blade shining.

"Bartho," Elena called and the butler appeared a few seconds later a step behind her chair, bowing at the waist low enough that his head was level with her own.

Louise noticeably jumped in her chair with a yelp, startled at the sudden appearance of the butler as she eyed him warily.

"Yes, my Queen," said the butler.

Jade's eyebrows shot up at that.

"Have Marcus bring his best soldiers to the training yards in an hour."

"As you wish, my Queen."

The butler disappeared a moment later.

"Queen?" repeated Jade questioningly.

"Oh I haven't told you yet, have I? It's a long story, one that I do plan to fill you in on later, but suffice it to say that I am currently the Night Queen and ruler of Nifleheim," she replied.

Jade studied her with interest but said no more as she took another sip of her tea.

Elena looked to the pink-haired girl on the far end of the table. The girl had finished her bowl and finally seemed to show subtle signs that she did not enjoy the taste of it. Elena had been correct in thinking that her hunger overrode her taste buds in this situation. Now that she had her fill, she likely would detest the taste even more now.

"Louise, dear. I'm sure that wasn't nearly enough to fill your hungry belly. Here, you can have the rest of mine," she said as graciously as she could.

"Oh! No thank you. I-I'm fine, Lady Elena. I'm really full now, honestly..." Louise said nervously.

"There's no need to be shy, Louise. Not when Jade worked so hard to make such a delicious meal for us," she said with a devilish grin, "And don't you worry about me, dear, I've already had a meal earlier so I'm quite stuffed myself."

The look of horror in the young girl's eyes filled Elena with much satisfaction as she used magic to float the bowl over to the meekly protesting girl.

"Elena is right, girl. You're scrawny enough as it is. We cannot allow you to die from starvation or malnutrition. Eat up! And when you're done you may go about your duties as I instructed earlier today."

Deflated, Louise could only bow her head in defeat as she reached for her spoon. "Yes, Lady Jade."

"And thank Lady Elena for her generosity," said the warrior.

"Thank you, Lady Elena."

When the girl finished, she bowed to the two of them, took all the empty bowls and used utensils, bowed again, and then left. Looking very unsure of herself the entire time.

"What are we going to do with her, by the way?" Elena asked, her gaze settling on the armor-clad lady now that they were alone.

Jade leaned back in her chair, the wood creaking against the weight of her armor, her emerald eyes staring right back at Elena. "How do you mean?"

"I mean you don't plan to simply keep her as a maid forever, do you?"

"Why not?"

Blinking, Elena replied, "Well, for starters she can do magic. She was a student at some magic academy before she came here, you know. Not that I know how good this academy is, but she must be at least somewhat capable of casting useful spells."

"Then she can use her magic to fulfill her duties as a maid," replied the warrior, then she cocked her head at the vampire, "You've been talking to the girl, haven't you? Since when have you two become friends?"

Elena scoffed immediately. "Friends? We're not friends. Why would I want to be friends with a weak little human girl like her? I'm simply trying to maximize her potential as an asset of our Lord, and so I simply had a little chat to learn more about her earlier."

"You're saying she has potential? As an asset?" Jade sounded doubtful and gave her a dubious look to match.

"Potential to be more than a simple maid at least," stated the vampire.

"But you just called her weak."

Elena sighed. "Weak for now. We were all weak once. She just needs to be trained."

"Are you offering to train her? Because I certainly am not going to."

Elena didn't say anything at first as the wheels in her mind turned. Jade training the poor girl was definitely going to be disastrous, but if she trained the girl herself that might prove fruitful. "You know, that's not a bad idea," she said agreeably.

Training Louise would allow her to figure out what exactly made her special enough that the Demon Lord would take her in, and it would probably help her get closer to the girl to find out any secrets she might have. Additionally, she would be able to learn more about magic in other worlds, or at least in Louise's world. So far though, she didn't really see anything special about the girl beyond her pink physical features.

Jade crossed her arms. "Come on. Out with it. What are you playing at, Elena? Why are you so interested in the girl?"

"You're not?"

The warrior poured herself some more tea and said nothing.

"You never did tell me how she came to be here," Elena remarked.

"That's because I don't know. You'll have to talk with Lord Kaji about that. She was already here when I came to," said the warrior without elaborating.

Elena knew she spoke truthfully, but couldn't help but feel that Jade wasn't quite giving her the whole story. She didn't press any further, however. She was going to find out eventually.

"Well, this has been lovely. Thank you again, Jade, for the... meal. I should go check on the ward stones and defense crystals one more time before the fun begins later," she said, pushing her chair back and getting to her feet. "Meet you at the training yards?"

**=x=x=x=x=**

Louise busied herself with a long list of chores that Jade had left her with. Most of it was simple cleaning of various rooms and hallways throughout the keep, which was what she was doing now.

With broom in hand, she swept her way down one of the upper hallways of the keep, careful to make sure she didn't miss any spots. The lady warrior was sure to check on her work later and she didn't want to be punished for any mistakes.

Thanks to Lady Elena's generosity, she now had multiple sets of underwear and no longer felt embarrassed to be out in her maid uniform. Although the underwear that she received were definitely more risque than she was comfortable wearing, they were better than nothing.

She was just about finished with this hallway when she heard the sound of someone clearing their throat behind her.

With a yelp, she jumped and turned to see a familiar gray-haired butler standing with one hand behind his back while the gloved fist of the other arm was up to his mouth, presumably to cover the cough he had just produced. His eyes were crimson like Lady Elena and his skin was just as pale. He was the one who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere earlier during her meal with Lady Jade and Lady Elena.

"W-Who are you?" she demanded, her heart still racing. She was trying to figure out how he managed to sneak up behind her like that without making a sound. The hallway was absolutely quiet save for the sounds of Louise's cleaning and even the slightest sound reverberated across the stones. Footsteps were particularly easy to hear from her short experience roaming the halls, but this butler apparently made no noise at all when he walked.

The butler smiled without showing his teeth as he placed his other hand behind his back too. "My name is Bartholomew, young miss, and I am the personal butler of the Night Queen. However, I am also known as Bartho. You may call me that if you wish." His speech was measured and easily understandable, carrying with it a confidence that seemed quite appropriate for his age and station.

"Okay," she said uncertainly, wondering why he was there, "I'm-"

"Louise Vallière. Did I pronounce that correctly?" interrupted the butler.

"Y-Yes," she replied, feeling nervous all of a sudden. Given her track record so far of meeting people here in this world, she was expecting him to threaten her life somehow. She wasn't sure how much more of this she could take. As if being thrown into some strange, unknown world wasn't enough, it had to be filled with dangerous individuals who all seemed to be lining up to meet her too.

"Good. I was concerned that I misheard it from the queen," he admitted.

"I'm sorry, was there... something I could help you with?"

"Yes," said the butler, "I saw you dining with the queen and Lady Jade earlier. A rare thing to dine with such fine individuals. I've never seen you before and I thought you might be a guest of some sort, but I noticed that you wore the uniform of a maid." He made a show of looking her up and down and it made her cross her arms and hold herself. "I then thought perhaps this was simply a fashion choice on your part, but here I am surprised to see that you are, in fact, an actual maid."

Louise listened quietly, unsure of where this was going.

"Young miss, I have served the Night Queen for over a hundred years now," Louise was visibly surprised at this revelation, "And she has never invited me to dine with her in private like you just did. So I stand here before you with the greatest of curiosity. Who are you? What is your relation with them? Why were you invited to dine with such esteemed individuals? These are things I must know." His face remained impassive, red eyes watching her closely.

Louise didn't know what to tell him. She hardly knew herself why she was invited to eat with them like that, not that she really minded because there was food. The thought of the food did make her stomach turn a little. She normally would have refused to eat whatever that was earlier, but since Lady Jade had personally made it and she was absolutely famished, she forced herself to wolf it down as quickly as she could.

Her table manners might have been a bit lacking, but the two other women didn't seem to mind, busy as they were talking between themselves about something or other. She tried not to listen in to their conversation, though she couldn't help but hear a few things.

The silence stretched on until finally the butler spoke again.

"Very well, if you do not wish to tell me, then that is your business," his voice seemed to get a little harder though he remained polite. "However, I cannot stand by and allow you to continue on like this." He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

This was not totally unexpected. Louise was waiting for him to finally threaten her well-being, like all the rest of the people she'd met so far have. She noted that the nearest door was only a few feet away. If she turned and ran now, she might be able to get in and lock it behind her before he could react. But then, before she could put her escape plan into action, she was actually surprised by what the butler said next.

"Your outfit is far too large for you and your boots are worn and dirty. You are also quite terrible at your duties as a maid," he pointed out in quick succession. "This is totally unacceptable, young miss, and must be corrected at once. I will not have you sullying the presence of Her Highness with your poor appearance, nor can I abide your continued lack of proper skills at performing your duties, simple as they are. Since I am now to be stationed here at the Black Fortress, as Head Butler I have been charged by my Queen with the responsibility of returning this place to proper working order. As such, you are now my subordinate and it is my duty to make sure you look and act appropriately. Now if you would please follow me, we shall begin at once starting with your attire."

With his speech done, he turned on his heel and walked off.

That was totally unexpected. Groaning inwardly, Louise was starting to wish he had simply threatened her life instead.

**=x=x=x=x=**

The training yards were located in the Lower District of The Black Fortress. They consisted of several buildings dedicated to martial training. One of the buildings was oblong in shape with elevated stands that ringed a wide stone field that was perfectly flat. It was a fighting arena.

It was here that Marcus found himself summoned along with a couple of hand-picked soldiers from his vanguard, as instructed.

Marcus rolled his shoulders as he readjusted the heavy pauldrons of his armor. Each pauldron was ringed with gold and had a roaring dragon's head in the center rising up out of the metal. His black cape fell behind him, swaying as he walked towards the middle of the field. Behind him followed Katarina and Ramsey.

Waiting for them was the Night Queen in an elegant long black gown with a provocative thigh-high slit and a woman standing next to her in magnificent emerald green armor. She didn't appear to have any weapons with her, though from the armor alone it was plain to see that she was a warrior of some repute and was probably the reason that they were called here.

"She's human," remarked Ramsey from behind him, sounding surprised.

"This should be interesting," Katarina said with a hint of excitement.

Macus stayed silent. The woman definitely appeared to be human, but what possible reason could the queen have to bring her here? There was no way they were supposed to train with this woman, were they? He had encountered some humans with superhuman skills and abilities before, but when it came down to it they had been no match for his own strength.

The Night Queen watched them approach with her piercing red eyes. Her expression was unreadable.

The vampires each dropped to one knee once they reached a close enough distance.

"My Queen," greeted Marcus as he bowed his head. The other two followed suit.

He could really smell the lightly fragrant scent of the woman in armor. Definitely human.

"Get up, get up. No need to be so formal all the time, especially not in front of Jade here," fussed the Queen and they promptly got to their feet.

"They look pretty strong," the armored woman called Jade noted with an even tone.

"Yes, they're quite capable," sniffed the vampire queen. "This is Marcus, he's Captain of my Night Guard. And the two with him are, I believe, Katarina and Ramsey. His subordinates."

Each of them bowed their heads in greeting to the woman as they were introduced.

"And this," said the queen with a smile and a hand gesturing towards the armored woman, "Is my good friend Jade. Although that's Lady Jade to you. Or Commander Jade? Which do you prefer, my dear?"

Jade snorted. "Seeing as how I don't currently have an army at my disposal, I suppose Lady Jade will do."

Marcus couldn't help but feel surprised that the woman was some kind of military general, and more significantly that a human was friends with the Night Queen, though he was careful not to show it. What country was this woman from? And how did she become friends with Queen Elena?

"There you have it. I present to you the fierce and legendary Lady Jade," said the vampire queen.

Jade rolled her eyes at first but then she inclined her head to the three vampires. "A pleasure."

"Now that you're all acquainted, let's get to the reason why we're all here. My dear friend, Lady Jade, would like to spar with some of the best from my vaunted Night Guard because she's a little out of practice," explained the Night Queen with a smirk, "And I do hope you won't disappoint either of us."

Katarina and Ramsey gave each other surprised looks. Even Marcus was taken aback and was unable to hide his reaction, his expressionless mask broken momentarily.

"Ah. You must be thinking that this isn't fair to Jade, but I assure you that she is more than capable of handling herself. So please don't hold back, or you'll be sorry."

Jade started to do a few stretches, showing that her armor was custom-built for her because even with it on she was still quite flexible. That was only possible if the makers crafted it to the exact specifications of the wearer.

"Here are the rules," continued the queen vampire, "No weapons. No magic. All combat will be hand-to-hand. You lose if you get knocked out, badly injured, or pinned to the ground for more than five seconds. Oh, and you must stay within the arena field at all times. Is that clear?"

"Yes, your highness," the vampires said in unison.

Jade gave a silent nod of acknowledgement.

The Night Queen glanced between Jade and the Night Guard before she continued.

"Great. Which one of you wants to start us off?" asked the queen with a toothy grin.

"I'll be first, your grace," announced Ramsey as he stepped forward, beating Marcus by a half second as he was also about to speak up, his mouth already halfway open.

"Excellent. You two please follow me then," said the queen.

They walked towards one side of the arena where a heavy gate built into the sidewall led to a tunnel with some stairs at the end. They ascended to the first and lowest level of the audience stands and went to the first row, which was at least twelve feet above the arena floor.

"Your highness, may I speak freely?" asked Marcus as they looked on at the two fighters standing in the middle of the arena.

"You may," came the reply.

"Is it truly a good idea to pit your friend against us like this? Aren't you worried that she might get seriously injured?"

She placed a hand on his shoulder, stroking the protruding lion's head and admiring the craftsmanship. "Oh Marcus, I'm more worried about you lot getting injured than I am about her. You'll see soon enough."

Marcus felt his pride take a hit but said no more as the queen yelled for the two to begin. Was this human woman really that strong?

With his heightened sense of hearing and sight, he was able to hear and see everything as clearly as if he were right in the middle of the two combatants.

Jade started bouncing on the balls of her feet, making it look easy even with all her armor on. Marcus figured that she must be a lot stronger than she looked.

"I don't understand why we're doing this, Lady Jade, but if it is the queen's will, so be it," Ramsey said as he bowed at the waist to the warrior.

"You don't have to understand," replied Jade coolly as she shook her arms to loosen them up and continued to bounce, "You just have to fight."

Ramsey chuckled. "Very well. Would you like to strike first, my Lady?" he asked nicely as he raised his fists and got into a solid fighting stance. He was certainly confident in himself.

The dark-haired warrior laughed, her emerald eyes alight with excitement. "If you insist."

With the sound of rushing wind she lunged forward with such speed that Ramsey barely had time to react. He tried to block and redirect the incoming punch, but he was too slow and Jade's low punch connected with his abdomen as her gauntlet slammed against the vampire's armor with an audible thud that echoed through the empty arena.

She stopped her forward movement a step behind where he had been standing, one knee bent while her trail leg was straight after pushing off of her foot and twisting her body for maximum power output. Her right arm was outstretched as Ramsey was sent flying at least twenty feet before he tumbled across the ground even farther, kicking up some dirt along the way.

He came to a stop in a crumpled heap almost forty feet away from where he had been standing.

Standing upright, Jade placed her hands on her hips and looked at the fallen vampire critically.

"How was that for a first strike?" she asked playfully, bouncing on the balls of her feet once more.

He groaned.

Both Marcus and Katarina leaned forward as they stared dumbfounded at the scene before them.

"How is this possible?" Katarina said in disbelief.

Marcus couldn't understand it either. He thought his eyes were playing tricks on him, but no matter how many times he blinked or rubbed them, he could still see Jade bouncing on her feet while Ramsey lay motionless on the ground some distance away from where he had been only seconds ago.

Was the women really a human? He was aware that there existed humans with gifts and abilities that allowed them to fight on par with vampires, but to actually see one in action was surprising. Not only was Lady Jade incredibly fast, she was also supernaturally strong to knock Ramsey off his feet like that. He was most definitely impressed.

"She better not have killed her," Katarina said with a mixture of worry and anger.

"No, I don't think she did," replied Marcus as they watched Ramsey struggle to get back up. "But she definitely hit him hard."

Next to them, the Night Queen was smiling.

**=x=x=x=x=**

The outpost built atop a cliff overlooking the valley below was small, with a garrison of only thirty soldiers. A collection of simple wooden structures were enclosed by a wall made of thick tree trunks, weathered and aged from the elements. In the center, a watchtower stood tall to give a commanding view of the surrounding area.

Along the walls and on the sides of all the structures hung the banners of the Acheron Empire, proudly displayed for all to see.

Decurion Alan Rogarde was busy writing a letter to his family telling them that he would be home on leave soon when he heard the commotion outside. There were men shouting in the yard and he heard the sound of the gates being opened. Putting down his pen, he made his way outside to check on what was going on.

His Tessarius, the next highest-ranking officer in his unit, was running towards him with a worried look.

"What's all this about?" he demanded, feeling a bit annoyed.

"A rider is fast approaching, sir!" replied his second.

"A rider? One of ours?"

"Yes, sir."

"From which direction?"

"From the east!"

The Decurion's face scrunched up. "From the east? But that's..." he trailed off. There was only one scout currently deployed in that direction at the moment.

"Ready the messenger birds," he ordered grimly, and the Tessarius ran off immediately.

Not long after, a horse thundered through the gates that closed quickly behind it. A cloud of dirt followed in its wake and filled the courtyard as it came to a halt. The horse and the rider looked like they had been through hell. Bruised and bloodied, they were both barely conscious and looked like they were ready to keel over dead at any moment.

For a few seconds, every soldier in the outpost simply stared at both rider and mount and there was total silence.

A crow cawed overhead.

"Fetch water and medical supplies! And someone help the man off his horse, damn it!" yelled the Decurion as his glare swept the courtyard, startling the soldiers and spurring them into action.

A few men helped the exhausted rider off his horse as others led the horse away to rest in the small stable nearby. A few more ran to their storehouse to get medical supplies.

Leaning on one of the soldiers, the scout was practically dragged to the Decurion, who stood with arms behind his back waiting in the shade of the porch of his office.

"You look like hell. What's happened? What news do you bring?" said the Decurion. He had a feeling about what it might be, though he hoped he was wrong. For all of their sake's he hoped he was wrong.

"The Black... The Black Fortress... activity..." the scout managed to say before he passed out.

The Decurion frowned. He was not wrong.

Some distance away, a figure with crimson eyes moved between the shadows of the trees, heading east.

**=x=x=x=x=X****=x=x=x=x=**

**Author's Note: **Okay, next chapter I think will be mostly if not all about what's going on in Tristania. Thanks for the reviews and support! Let me know what you think so far and if you have any constructive criticism/comments :)

For the purposes of this story, a Decurion is an Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO) of the Empire who commands 30 soldiers. All that will be explained in more detail later on.

This world is inspired by a lot of media that I've consumed over the years, but this world and these new characters are entirely my own creation. This, along with a few stories I'm writing right now, is an exercise in world building and character creation. I'll probably dabble in crossovers at some point too, just to play around with that genre creatively.


	5. Chapter 4

** X**

**Unfamiliar Zero**

**Chapter 4  
****=x=x=x=x=X****=x=x=x=x=**

Orion Osmond, known to most as simply Old Osmond, was the Headmaster of the renowned Tristain Academy of Magic. He was, as his nickname suggests, quite old, having lived for well over seventy years now. His white mustache was long, his equally white beard was longer, and his definitely very white hair was longer still. Creases and wrinkles lined his face like some ancient cartographer's map and his eyes were always hidden behind an ever-present squint, one that was almost always drawn to the figure of attractive women. His perversion for panties in particular were, unfortunately, well known to most females at this point, though he did actually draw the line with his students, or at least tried to.

Considered one of the most powerful mages residing in the Kingdom of Tristania, Old Osmond was a four square mage - meaning he could use all four primary elements: earth, air, water, and fire - and was perhaps also the most experienced in magic in the kingdom thanks to his long years of practice and study in the magical arts. That being said, nothing he had ever experienced before had prepared him for the situation that he now currently faced.

Long had Old Osmond been in charge of the Academy, and though his students were often rowdy and got into mischief, rare had it been for someone to be as troublesome as a certain pink-haired young girl named Louise Vallière. The brat, for she was certainly a petulant brat, had incredible magical power within her and yet no matter what she did she was unable to properly wield it. All her attempts at spellwork resulted in destruction, and not of the intentional kind. She couldn't even cast a simple levitation spell on an object without leaving a ten foot crater where the object had been before being incinerated by her wild magic.

Had she been a simple noble, Old Osmond would have simply recommended that she give up her pursuit of studying magic at his Academy. However, as the youngest daughter of the very powerful and all too influential Vallière family, Louise was a headache that he simply couldn't get rid of. In fact, sometimes he had caught himself wishing that she simply disappeared. Except now, she actually _did_ and he was mortified.

"Professor Colbert," said the old headmaster, his deep frown hidden behind his thick facial air, "Are you absolutely certain that young Miss Vallière is nowhere to be found within the Academy grounds? Perhaps she is simply hiding from yet another embarrassing spectacle in front of her classmates." The girl probably was at her limit after a full year of continued failure to produce results.

Sitting in his office was one of his most capable professors, Jean Colbert, with his head almost completely bald save for the last clumps of black hair that clung to the base of his skull. He was the young girl's teacher for the second year, and he was the one in charge of her class when as usual all hell broke loose due to a mishap with one of Louise's spells. However, unlike all her previous mishaps, the young girl had simply disappeared after the dust had settled.

Adjusting his small round spectacles on his face, the middle-aged professor nodded solemnly. "I'm certain of it, headmaster. I've spent all day searching every corner of the Academy with the help of Miss Vallière's classmates. None have found any trace of her anywhere."

"Hmm..." the old man stroked his beard, trying hard not to show the mounting panic within him. He honestly had no idea what to do at the moment. He had no prior experience to draw upon for a time like this, for he had never heard of anyone simply disappearing after a botched spell before. Attempting to calm himself, he decided that he needed more information. "You witnessed what happened, yes?"

"Yes, headmaster. I was right there..." said the man, looking downcast as he explained exactly what he saw. Essentially, Louise was the last one to perform the Summoning Ritual, and while her incantation was a little odd, she performed her wand movements correctly while also calling forth, at least for a split second, the right amount of magic energy from what Colbert could see. And yet, right at the very end, there was a sudden surge of magic like there always was, and then an explosion just like any other time the girl had messed up. Except this time, she had vanished into thin air.

Old Osmond wracked his brain as he tried to think of how it was possible for the Summoning Ritual to go so terribly wrong for the summoner. At worst, it should have simply not summoned anything at all, and yet somehow something even worse happened and the summoner ended up disappearing completely. There was certainly a chance that it was only some wild or random teleportation effect, though he hoped the young girl was somewhere hospitable, wherever she was. And, while incredibly low, there was also the chance that she... perished. Though he tried not to dwell on that thought.

At that moment, Colbert leaned forward and placed his hands on his head, muttering to himself. "I... I should've been able to do something. As her teacher, I was... I was responsible for her... perhaps I should have..."

"Stop!" said Old Osmond with a sweeping motion of his hand, his robes rustling at the sudden movement. He gave the professor a stern look as the man glanced up at him. "You are _not _to blame for this, Professor Colbert. Answer me this: did any of your other students have any problems with their Summoning Rituals?"

Colbert hesitated, but shook his head. There were unshed tears in his eyes and he tried to blink them away. "No, headmaster."

"This was an accident beyond your control, Professor," stated the headmaster firmly. "_Everyone_, including the young Miss Vallière, knew that she was having... trouble with her magic. She knew the risks whenever she performed it. If there is any blame to be had here, other than on Miss Vallière, it would be mine for allowing her to continue studying here at the Academy even though she was clearly a hopeless case. One that had endangered many lives, including her own, as she continued to study here with the destructive effects of every failed spell she cast."

"But-"

Again the headmaster held up a hand that had the professor's words die in his throat. "That being said, she is still a student at this school, which means her safety is our top priority and right now her life is possibly in danger. From this moment on we are to operate under the assumption that she has simply somehow been teleported somewhere by accident, so while she is _lost_ for now, she will eventually be _found_. We will continue to search the school grounds, as many times as necessary to fully rule it out that she is not simply hiding somewhere here, and begin the search of the outlying areas as well."

The headmaster wasn't sure if he really believed what he was saying himself, but he had to give them all something to believe in and something to do to occupy their minds and bodies while this whole incident unfolded.

Colbert nodded slowly. He took off his spectacles and wiped at his eyes with the back of his hand before putting them back on and leveling a determined gaze at the headmaster. "I will do whatever I can to make sure she is returned to us, headmaster."

"I'm sure you will," Old Osmond smiled at him sadly, then a thought struck him. "Perhaps you and I should research more into the Summoning Ritual and see if there are any potential clues there. It might also be prudent to look into any information we have on side effects and unintended results of failed spells."

"Yes, headmaster. I'll head to the library immediately and gather all the relevant books that I can find," replied the professor.

"Oh, and one more thing," the headmaster said, hesitating for only a second, "Since this is a rather delicate matter, let's refrain from informing her family or... her highness, just yet. At least until we can gather more information and spend some more time searching for her."

Colbert looked at him like he'd lost his mind. "But why?" he asked incredulously. "They have every right to know what's happened, headmaster. They _deserve _to know the truth immediately! They might be able to help. Provide clues even. Ideas for where she might be."

Old Osmond winced and raised his hands to calm the professor. "I agree with you, professor. I absolutely agree with you, but we shouldn't be too hasty. Let's not inform them prematurely if there's a chance that young Miss Vallière can be recovered quickly on our own. We must take the greatest care not to cause undue stress. You and I both know that if we tell her family and the princess now, there will be panic and overreactions-" Colbert's eye seemed to twitch at the word "-and if we can avoid that altogether then everyone wins." The headmaster tried to give the man his best smile.

The professor stood, his determined look now twisting into more of a glare at the old man, and the smile faltered suddenly on the headmaster's face. "If we don't find her by tomorrow evening, I'll tell them all myself," he said resolutely as he swept from the room, slamming the doors to the headmaster's office behind him.

Rubbing his temples because of the massive headache he could feel coming, Old Osmond sighed as a wave of exhaustion seeped into his bones as he slumped heavily into his chair. He truly hoped that they would be able to find the girl soon, for he wasn't sure what would happen to all of them if they didn't. Lamenting the fact that his lovely assistant Longueville was also nowhere to be found, and therefore he was unable to sneak a peek at her undies to distract himself from his troubles, he found himself wishing that he might disappear too.

**=x=x=x=x=X****=x=x=x=x=**

It was dark by the time Kirche returned to her room at the Academy. She had spent almost the entire day searching for her classmate Louise, accompanied at first by the entirety of the second year class plus some of the available staff. A few hours into the search, however, and most of her peers had called off for the day for one reason or another. All of them made her furious.

"If she wanted to run and hide, then maybe we should let her be," said one of the other students before heading back to his room. A few others murmured agreement at that and followed.

Another group of fellow students stopped searching a little while after that, citing either their tiredness or that they had other pressing matters to attend to. Lies, of course. At least for most of them. Classes were cancelled for the day, and the next day as well while this whole situation with Louise's disappearance was dealt with. It was no great secret that they simply didn't care _that _much about the young noble girl who couldn't even properly wield her magic like the rest of them.

By the time the sun was getting ready to set, there were only a handful of students remaining in the search party. Tabitha, of course, had been one of the few who remained until the search was officially called off for the day by Professor Colbert himself, who gave those few remaining a sad bit of thanks for their efforts without bothering to hide the deeply troubled look on his face even as he said that things would work out and they would find Louise one way or another.

The young blue-haired witch was no less quiet than she normally was that day despite the unexpected turn of events, and her face betrayed none of the emotions she was feeling or thoughts she was thinking. Of course, there wasn't much time to really look upon her impassive young face what with the search going on and the fact that Tabitha was tasked with searching the surrounding area on the back and wings of her wind rhyme dragon, Sylphid, while the rest of them fanned out on foot on the Academy grounds.

Even so, Kirche could feel that what had happened to Louise troubled her friend, and she did consider Tabitha to be a friend despite their barely talking to one another over the past year since they first met. And her instinct was rewarded by a tug on the back of her robes as she was entering her room, to which she turned around to find the slightest of frowns on the blue-haired witch's otherwise stoic young face.

"We didn't find her," Tabitha stated flatly.

Kirche shook her head sadly. "Not today, Tabitha dear, but we'll find her tomorrow."

Tabitha tilted her head to the side, regarding the redhead thoughtfully, "You sure?"

This time it was Kirche who frowned, one deeper than what Tabitha was showing. Gently reaching a hand out to rest upon the shorter girl's shoulder, she said, "No... but we'll try our hardest."

The young girl nodded slowly, the small frown on her face gone as her emotionless mask slipped back on, though her sky blue eyes still hinted at the slightest bit of worry. Most people probably wouldn't have even noticed, but Kirche was not most people. She was Tabitha's closest friend here at the Academy, and so she knew how to read the girl. Sometimes. The young witch was certainly difficult to read most days, harder still to get her to talk, but she was a very good listener at least. A fact that Kirche often took advantage of when she wanted to rant about something or other, or if she got excited about something and wanted to talk about it.

"Do you want to come in?" Kirche motioned towards her half-opened bedroom door.

Tabitha didn't respond immediately, and the redhead thought perhaps she would come in, but then the smaller witch pressed her red-rimmed spectacles up further on her face with a slender finger and then shook her head. "Tired," was all she said.

"Yeah. Me too, dear," replied Kirche as her hand fell away from Tabitha's shoulder. "We should both get some rest before another long day of searching begins. Good job out there, by the way, you and your dragon both. We'll definitely need you two at your best if we're ever to find poor Louise."

With a nod, the girl turned without another word and left Kirche standing in front of her door, watching the blue-haired witch walk off and disappear down the otherwise empty hall.

Once Tabitha was out of sight, Kirche finally stepped into her room, where her familiar was curled up on his own cushioned bed on the floor next to her own. Flame, the fire salamander that was her familiar, was tired, having searched with its master all day, and had trotted into the room as soon as she had opened the door before she was stopped by Tabitha earlier.

"Hey Flame," she said as she shut the door quietly behind her.

Flame made an affectionate sound akin to a purr but did not budge from his bed, the fire at the end of its tail almost as small as the flame of a lit candle. The salamander rested with one eye closed, the other half-open and watched her as she sat down heavily in front of her vanity desk and started staring at her reflection in the mirror.

Kirche studied her own beautiful tanned face closely, a face that she spent a lot of time and effort getting ready in front of this very mirror to face a cruel and unfair world that she was doing her best to make her way through, one day at a time. In that face that stared right back at her she saw guilt and shame. Even a hint of remorse. She knew exactly why she felt that way. There were many times over the past year that the feelings had coursed through her, even as she worked to stamp them down. It was because of Louise. More specifically, it was because of the way she treated the poor girl.

When first she saw Louise, Kirche couldn't help but think of her as a spoiled brat, especially given her cold demeanor and her unwillingness to make friends at the Academy. But as she observed the girl from a distance at first, and it became clear that there was something wrong with her magic and her classmates started to tease her for it, that was when Kirche realized that the pink-haired girl was isolating herself on purpose.

Louise had been very self-aware of her failings as a mage when she first stepped onto Academy grounds. She probably had gone through private tutoring, as most children of nobility did, and had discovered her apparent inability to properly control her magic at least a few years before the first day of school. Knowing that she was well-behind her peers, laughably so in fact, and also knowing the expectations of her as a member of one of the most influential families in the Kingdom of Tristain if she went down this path, Louise still chose to enroll at the Academy and become a mage.

Even with the odds so stacked against her and so much pressure on her shoulders, the pink-haired girl pushed through, isolating herself because she knew that she would become a pariah once it was clear how inept - and also dangerous - her ability with magic was.

Kirche respected that. She respected that a great deal. So much so that she actually wanted to be Louise's friend, to help the girl gain control of her magic and become the great mage she claimed she would one day be, but her very first and only attempt at doing so failed miserably when Louise mouthed off to her about their longstanding family feud with the Zerbst family almost as soon as Kirche had introduced herself.

Kirche's eyes had widened at the open hostility, shock registering on her face for the briefest of moments before her own social mask slipped on - Tabitha was not the only one with a mask - and it became clear to her that perhaps a friendship with the girl was unlikely, at least until Louise could gain control of her magic and become confident in herself once more. Because it was that lack of confidence, and the feeling of worthlessness, that caused Louise to lash out at everyone and keep them all at arm's length.

Oh, it was pitifully easy for Kirche to see through the haughty facade of confidence that Louise often put on, yet her pink eyes could not hide the fear nor the slight wetness that oft seemed she would be on the verge of tears. The pink-haired witch was scared and alone. So very alone.

But if Kirche was not going to be able to help Louise as a friend, how then would she go about doing it? There had only really been one other choice, and in the few seconds after that disastrous introduction, she set herself to being Louise's rival. If she could not help the girl as a friend, then she would do her best to do so masquerading as her enemy. By pushing her buttons and making life difficult for the girl, Kirche hoped to make Louise stronger and also make her push herself harder than she ever thought she could so that one day she might reach her goal of becoming a true mage.

And on that day, Kirche hoped she would be able to smile and congratulate her, and then explain away her behavior in another attempt to become friends with the girl she had learned to respect and certainly one she only wished the best for, despite all outward evidence to the contrary. She snorted bitterly as she continued to stare at herself in the mirror. Perhaps she had pushed the girl too far. Perhaps she had broken the girl instead of strengthened her like she thought she had. Perhaps also she had taken to acting a bully so much she had actually really and truly become one without her realizing it.

Now Louise was gone and Kirche feared that she was responsible.

She cradled her head in her hands as she leaned with her elbows on the desk. Frustration and anger burned within her. Frustration at the situation they were in and anger at herself for possibly being the root of it. Guilt and shame came right on the heels of frustration and anger. She only hoped that once they found Louise she might be strong enough to ask the pink-haired girl for forgiveness and explain her motives and reasons for how she had been acting towards her, and hopefully start anew, though she knew deep down that the pink-haired witch probably wouldn't even listen to her for more than a few seconds before angrily storming off.

Feeling bitter and upset, Kirche tried to take a few calming breaths to settle herself. It wouldn't do to go to bed so emotional. And it was working until there was a sudden tapping at her window that made her stiffen. With slowly narrowing eyes she slid her gaze over in the direction of the lone window to her room from which the pale light of the moon leaked in.

There was someone out there. A guy. One of her classmates. She couldn't even remember his name. He waved at her happily and pointed meaningfully to the window.

"Hello, beautiful! My gorgeous and spectacular goddess Kirche, would you please open the window and let me in? I'm not late am I? I did set an appointment for tonight, right? I hope you didn't forget," he said loudly enough to be heard through the window, flashing her what he probably thought was his winningest smile as his eyes traveled hungrily up and down her body.

She sighed. She was very much _not _in the mood for this. Kirche's fingers found the smooth, polished wood of her wand just as her eye started to twitch. At least she now had an outlet to release all this pent up emotion. The poor fool.

**=x=x=x=x=X****=x=x=x=x=**

Jean Colbert thought he heard the sound of a pained cry echo from somewhere outside his window, but when he strained to listen, there was nothing but the sound of the wind. Or was that the sound of a torrent of flames? No. That couldn't be right. It was probably just the wind. Chalking it up to hearing things because of the lateness of the hour as well as the tiredness of his mind, he leaned and stretched back in his chair and yawned something fierce.

He had gone to the library almost immediately after he left the headmaster's office earlier to set about researching what could have possibly happened to his missing student. The fact that he didn't even know, and nobody else seemed to know either, did not sit well with him. Now he was sitting at his desk in his office with a dozen tomes arrayed across every inch of available space. Each one had something to do with the Summoning Ritual, a ritual most mages took for granted. None so far had provided any leads that might be useful, or perhaps they did and he simply wasn't seeing it.

A stack of books on the ground next to him were all on the topic of magical accidents and also problems and consequences of failed or improperly cast magic. These he had yet to even open, though he was vaguely aware of some of that. Usually, the spell would simply fail to activate, or on rare occasions the spell would backfire into a magical explosion, which was what happened with Louise fairly regularly. However, the fact that she disappeared into thin air shouldn't have been a possible side effect from what he understood.

Of course, explosions caused by miscast or failed magic was dangerous in itself, but mages had a hardier constitution than non-magical people. Something to do with the magic coursing within them giving them more durability and accelerated healing to a noticeable degree when compared to the common folk. All confirmed by experiments, many of which he did not approve the methods of, but nevertheless had been done for the sake of knowledge.

Colbert prided himself in having a closer relationship with his students than most other professors at the Academy. He knew more than simply their names and titles, and those of their families, which every professor was expected to know. Dealing with the nobility was, after all, a delicate affair as the headmaster had pointed out earlier. Colbert knew their strengths and weaknesses, their likes and dislikes, their level of talent and their ambitions, and so much more that he practically considered them all in some ways his own children.

He wanted them all to succeed, to achieve their goals and one day become who they were meant to be to the fullest extent possible. And as their teacher and mentor, he wanted to help them get there. Perhaps this was why he had a particular soft spot for the young and stubborn Louise Vallière, who so desperately wanted to become a full-fledged mage. The girl's case was unique. Born into a family of considerable political and magical power, she should have been destined for greatness. Instead, she appeared doomed to failure because of her puzzling ineptitude with magic.

Colbert could sense great power deep within her, but the girl was mysteriously unable to cast the most basic of spells without causing some sort of explosion. This was certainly evidence at least that she did have access to magic, but there appeared to be some unknown problem with how she was able to wield it. A full year of teaching and observing her had led to no fruitful conclusions as to why she was experiencing such catastrophic failure with her magic. Despite that, Colbert had not and _would not_ give up on her, even if she ever decided to give up on herself - which she thankfully hadn't from what he could tell.

Now though, he couldn't help but wonder if her disappearance was by chance or by choice. In the dust, smoke, and confusion of her latest explosive debacle, perhaps the young girl had decided enough was enough and fled. That was why he needed to talk to her family, to find if maybe she had gone running home because where else could she have gone? Not that he actually believed that she voluntarily ran away.

That was not the Louise Vallière that he knew. Her running away was highly unlikely, even more so than the theory that she was somehow involuntarily transported or teleported somewhere due to the very nature of the Summoning Ritual, but there was one surefire way to find out and that was to simply go over and talk to the girl's family. Much as it chafed him though, he also could see the reason why the headmaster was so hesitant to reach out to the girl's family about the news.

The Duke and Duchess Vallière were two very powerful mages, and the Duchess Karin in particular was arguably as powerful as the headmaster, who many considered to be the preeminent mage in the kingdom. Her wind magic was rumored to be the strongest and most refined in all Halkeginia, and her command of the other three elements made her a formidable foe indeed. Not only that, but the Vallières were not kind to those who upset them, and they had very close relations with the royal family, with the young Louise being good friends with the current and only Princess of Tristain.

They would all undoubtedly be furious and concerned, and rightfully so, about the recent turn of events, and there was a very strong chance that there would be unwelcome consequences for himself, the headmaster, and even the Academy itself. Regardless of the potential risks to his person or his career, he resolved to speak to the girl's family like he told the headmaster he would tomorrow evening if they still couldn't find the girl by then. Hopefully all their worries would be unfounded and he would find Louise safe and sound at home.

Of course there was a third possibility, one that he flat out refused to accept. Louise was not dead. She couldn't be. Students weren't supposed to die before their teachers and this was not going to be the first for him. He did not want to even dwell on it for more than the few seconds it crossed his mind so he shook his head, rubbed his weary eyes, and started to focus on the tome currently right in front of him. There would be no sleeping tonight for Professor Jean Colbert.

**=x=x=x=x=X****=x=x=x=x=**

When day broke the next morning, tendrils of dawn light trickled into the wide spaces of Henrietta's bedroom. Her arguably far too large of a four poster bed had thin purple curtains drawn all around, protecting her from the steadily intruding brightness of the new day. Underneath warm and incredibly comfortable bed sheets, the young princess slept soundly, oblivious to the world. That is, until there was a solid, but not too loud, knocking at her door.

Broken out of her sleep by the noise, with her head half engulfed by one of the several cushy pillows on her bed, Henrietta turned and slowly opened her bleary crystal blue eyes. Adjusting to the dim morning light, dimmed thanks to the curtains around her bed, she heard the knocking again. It was respectful and patient, but she knew it would not stop until she responded.

"Come in," she said loud enough to be heard all the way to the door. She already had an idea of who it could be.

Peering through a gap in the curtains around her bed, Henrietta watched half-awake as the door opened to reveal a young woman, not too much older than the princess, dressed in the black and white uniform of a maid. She had her dark brown hair tied into a tight ponytail that trailed behind her as she walked into the room with quiet footsteps.

"Good morning, princess," greeted the maid with a respectful bow.

"Good morning, Alice," replied the princess, followed by a yawn as she stretched. The sound of rustling bed sheets was loud in the otherwise silent room.

"Did you sleep well, princess?" asked the maid.

"Mhmm..."

"I'm glad to hear it. Your mother is expecting you at breakfast, your highness," said the maid as she then closed the distance between her and the bed and worked to open up the curtains.

The world around Henrietta suddenly got a lot brighter, much to her brief dismay, and she squinted and blinked rapidly for a short while as her eyes adjusted. She groaned inwardly. She wanted to say that she just wanted to stay under the covers for a while longer, perhaps even all morning, but she didn't actually say that out loud. She couldn't. She was the Princess of Tristain, Queen-to-be, and there were things she needed to do. Staying in bed and sleeping in today was not one of them. Plus, her mother would not be happy if she even tried to get out of having breakfast with her.

"Five minutes?" she finally asked, sounding tentative and hopeful.

Alice smiled. "I've been allowed to give you two."

Of course. Well, two extra minutes in bed was better than none, so Henrietta shut her eyes as Alice set about getting ready the princess's clothes and other things necessary for her that day. When the two minutes were up, and she could have sworn it was even less than that, the young princess was gently coaxed out of bed and given a few choices of outfits to wear. After she had settled on her outfit for the day, Alice left her alone to get changed and ready, but not before mentioning that breakfast would be served in the Queen's Sitting Room instead of the Royal Dining Room.

A fully dressed Henrietta, complete with her signature silver tiara with its few but very precious gems atop her head, twirled around in front of the mirror as she eyed herself. Her mother would likely be pleased with the way she looked, and no doubt so too would the nobility who were to attend Royal Court that day.

With a sigh, the young princess adjusted her soft purple hair once more before smiling at herself. Right. She was ready. For breakfast at least.

A relatively short walk later through the Royal Palace, Henrietta bowed quickly to the Queen, or just her mother really, as she was ushered into the sitting room by several royal servants and took a seat perpendicular to her mother at the small round table that had been set for them.

Queen Marianne de Tristain was a beautiful woman with dark blue eyes that shone with wisdom and an ever-present sorrow at the loss of her husband, the late King Henri IV. She moved with a grace that Henrietta envied, and spoke with a measured voice that commanded attention and respect, something that the young princess tried to emulate - it wasn't easy. Around her neck was a choker of pure teal crystals. She had a lighter shade of purple to her hair compared to Henrietta due to age and several decades of exposure to the sun, and upon it sat a gold crown full of jewels.

It was a crown that Henrietta was going to wear some day, though she tried not to think on that future too much.

They exchanged good mornings and breakfast was summarily served shortly after her arrival along with some tea. They ate with few words spoken between them, and it became clear to Henrietta that there was something on her mother's mind, but she waited until the queen was ready to talk about it. The queen did not speak unless she meant to.

When they were finished with their meals and were left with only their tea, the queen dismissed the servants who were standing at attention nearby, leaving the two royals alone. Whatever she was about to talk about was apparently incredibly important and private, and Henrietta found herself suddenly feeling anxious.

"How go your studies, dear?" asked the queen as she took a sip of tea, the cup still steaming as she brought it up to her face with a delicate touch.

"The tutoring? It's... a lot," she replied truthfully. She was receiving private tutoring a few times a week from several Court Advisers on everything from law to governance and magic to military tactics. Sometimes her brain felt like it was struggling to keep up with all the information being thrown at her, but so far it hadn't been too bad. Although she was worried that she might not remember something important when it came time to put what she had learned to the test. She was pleased the most with her progress in magic though, something that she mentioned to her mother.

"Good," the queen nodded approvingly. "Be sure that you continue to focus on your studies, dear, and not only on the magical aspect. For both our sakes. Ruling a kingdom is not easy, ruling with all this sorrow in my heart... I was never very good at all this to begin with," the queen made a vague gesture with her right hand. When she stopped talking she had a faraway look in her eye and Henrietta wanted to reach out and grasp her hand to give it a reassuring squeeze, so she did and received a warm smile and gentle squeeze of her own hand in return.

"I'll continue to do the best I can, mother," she assured the queen as they shared a moment, then the queen retracted her hand and the princess found herself reaching for the first time for her tea and drinking from it. It warmed her belly and tasted quite good.

"As we all should, I suppose," said the monarch faintly as she took another sip of her own tea. Then when she placed her tea back onto its saucer on the table with a clink, she spoke again in a grave tone, "I'm not sure if you're aware of how precarious our situation is at the moment, my dear. To the south, Gallia is still in chaos following the violent ascension of King Joseph. Further south, Romalia is mustering for another Holy Crusade. Across the sea to the northwest, there is talk of insurrection and unrest in Albion. And Germania bristles for a new war to the northeast. Already we are being looked at with hungry eyes among some of their nobility, and Gallia too now that the newly crowned king is in control."

Henrietta audibly gasped at the mention of possible insurrection in Albion. She had heard murmurs among the nobility about it these past few weeks and she had dismissed them as simply that, rumors. Now that her mother was actually mentioning it in a serious conversation meant that these rumors were closer to reality than she was comfortable with. They had family over there, and one blonde boy in particular who she cared about very deeply.

The queen paused for a moment, then continued, "We cannot face any enemies alone and hope to emerge victorious, and both our allies in Albion and Romalia seem unlikely to provide support in the near future given the situations present in those countries. To that end, I made the difficult decision to reach out to Emperor Albert III of Germania himself and he was... surprisingly cordial. I had never known the man, for he had never deigned to visit our little kingdom, and I think your father only ever met him once or twice too. He is well-spoken, if a little eccentric."

"Did you... come to an understanding?" asked Henrietta, suddenly curious. Her anxiety seemed to double too, for she knew not for what purpose her mother was telling her all this.

Queen Marianne nodded slowly. "Yes, dear," her mother hesitated and that in itself _tripled _the young princess's anxiety, "After a long discussion, we decided... that it would be mutually beneficial to join our royal houses and bloodlines and unite the strength and wealth of our two countries. To that end, you shall be marrying him sometime next year after I step down and your subsequent coronation as the newest Queen of Tristain."

Silence.

Henrietta didn't move, not even to blink, as the color drained from her pretty face and her blue eyes remained fixated on a point just past her mother's head. She had always known that it was a strong possibility that she would be married off – that was standard practice among the nobility – but there was always this hope, perhaps a foolish one, that lived within her that maybe as princess she'd be able to choose who she got married to instead. That hope was now crushed as the reality of her situation was revealed to her, and her thoughts immediately went to her first and currently only true love that she had ever known. How would he react to this news? Should she even tell him? It wasn't like either of them could even do anything about it.

"What of... What of Wales, mother?" she asked, and almost immediately regretted her words because of the look of surprise that turned into confusion that crossed the queen's face. She hoped that her slip up wouldn't bring about suspicion between herself and the boy in a kingdom across the sea.

"I just told you that I'm finally stepping down and handing the kingdom to you _and_ that you're about to be married off to the Emperor of Germania for political purposes... and you're worried about your cousin Wales, the Prince of Albion?" Queen Marianne arched an eyebrow at the still-shocked princess.

Before Henrietta could even muster some semblance of a response, the queen spoke again. "I suppose they _are _family and we should worry about them in a time of crisis, but there's not much we can do from here about their situation even besides the fact that there have been no overt moves at rebellion just yet. Your uncle King James is no slouch so we shall see what becomes of it, though I suspect that in the end Wales and the rest of his family will be perfectly fine. They are strong. They will weather this storm like many others they have before."

Henrietta nodded numbly, taking some comfort in her mother's words.

"Wales will grow up to be a fine king in Albion some day, of that I am certain, and you will undoubtedly be a much better queen than I... or I suppose you'll become an Empress? We haven't ironed out all the details just yet. Which reminds me, the Emperor did insist that you go visit the Imperial Palace soon so that you may get acquainted. That will certainly be arranged in the coming weeks, and I imagine that at some point within the year he'll also come visit Tristania to learn more about the place you call home."

Henrietta smiled weakly, but stayed silent. She didn't know what to say, or if there was even anything she _could _say other than some iteration of '_yes I understand and accept_.'

Another silence passed between them and the elder royal looked at her daughter with a sadness in her eyes despite giving her an encouraging smile. "You'll learn to make the most of it and be happy, my dearest Henrietta, and I will of course be with you every step of the way. Your father and I were betrothed when I was younger than you, you know. It isn't as bad as you might think. Emperor Albert III is at least younger than I, though certainly older than you, and he is still quite... energetic. You two should get along, though it will be hard at first because you simply don't know each other well enough and are from different cultures. At the very least, you should take comfort in the fact that your marriage will secure lasting peace for the kingdom throughout your reign, for no one will dare to attack us with Germania beside us. Not even that bloodthirsty fool of a king in Gallia..."

"I know, mother," she finally said in a quiet voice, though most of her mother's words didn't really register. Henrietta looked out one of the tall windows that overlooked the city of Tristania below. Above, a thin mist of clouds streaked across huge swaths of the bright blue sky. A part of her wanted nothing else but to be able leave all of this behind and simply be _free _to live her own life. How she wished she could sprout wings and fly off into the open sky right then and never look back.

As images of flying and freedom flitted through her still reeling mind, Henrietta's thoughts somehow turned to Louise Vallière, her best friend in the whole world. Perhaps it was to escape her situation that she thought of her now and she wondered if the girl was enjoying the beginning of her second year of study at the Academy. With everything that her mother had just told her, Henrietta had to catch up with Louise very soon to let the pinkette know all that was happening and all that would happen.

In fact, she decided that she was going to sneak over to the Academy as soon as she could get away from the watchful eyes of the palace. She only hoped that Agnes, her personal bodyguard, wouldn't be too mad at her for doing so.

**=x=x=x=x=X****=x=x=x=x=**

She couldn't believe her luck.

Even though a small part of her did feel bad about Louise's disappearance, a part that she readily ignored, the woman known to everyone in the Academy as simply Longueville, the headmaster's secretary, was positively ecstatic about the massive distraction this whole incident was turning out to be. And she didn't even have to do anything! Surely this was a sign that fate was smiling on her, and that it was supportive of her cause.

After the rather haphazard searching by the Academy for the missing girl yesterday, Professor Colbert got everyone organized into more cohesive search parties that were now being sent out into the surrounding countryside after it was finally decided that Louise was certainly nowhere to be found on Academy grounds.

Longueville could tell that most of the students, the brats of nobility that they were, did not look forward to spending hours of their day searching for their missing classmate. Whether that was because their upbringing made them averse to strenuous labor – and they did consider this rather strenuous – or because they didn't care enough for the girl to be expending this much effort looking for her, she didn't know.

Even the old pervert of a headmaster – she visibly shivered at the thought of his lechery the past year – was out searching as well, though somewhat begrudgingly, and she managed to convince them all that _someone _had to remain in the Academy. When the headmaster quickly offered to be the one to stay, the looks both she and Colbert gave him, and the quick talk about how it would look if word got out that the headmaster refused to go searching for a missing student himself, were more than enough to convince him otherwise.

Now, with the Academy practically empty save for a few of the peasant servants who couldn't wield magic, Longueville had the run of the place and she was going to take full advantage of that. She had envisioned having to use her golems to protect her while she went after the fabled Staff of Destruction kept safely hidden somewhere in a vault deep in the bowels of the Academy, but now that there wasn't anyone around to threaten her she could opt for a stealthier plan of action instead.

She had been practicing over the past year, rusty as her magic had been at first when she was assigned this important mission, with stealthily stealing things from the homes of nobility all across Tristain. She had encountered all manner of security and she managed to circumvent them all without much trouble. She even started writing rather dramatic letters as she built a separate identity for herself as the master thief Foquet the Crumbling Dirt. So successful was she that at one point she even considered stealing from the Royal Palace itself, but then she decided not to do something so brazen.

Despite the now easy path that lay before her to claim the Staff of Destruction, she did feel disappointed that she wouldn't be able to test her magic against capable mages. Still, with what lay on the horizon, there would be time enough for that when the time came.

She wondered how far the search parties were now. Even _if_ there was some kind of alarm she wasn't aware of that might alert the headmaster that someone was going after the staff, by the time he returned from the countryside she would surely be long gone. For all his power, it wasn't like the old pervert could fly or even teleport.

Unable to help but smile, the green-haired young lady went to work. After more than a year of observing, researching, and planning, she knew the layout of the entire Academy better than anyone except possibly the old geezer himself, so she knew the shortest and fastest routes to the hidden vault that kept the Staff of Destruction. It had taken her longer than she cared to admit to finally find the exact location of the vault, but thankfully she did and everything else fell into place.

She moved swiftly and efficiently through the strangely empty hallways, despite now having more time than she knew what to do with, until she was navigating a small labyrinth underneath the Academy. Sure enough, within several minutes of entering the underground passages, she had busted through all the vault's defenses – which honestly was surprisingly very light, but perhaps the fact that most people didn't know it existed and also the fact that there were usually dozens of powerful mages nearby on any given day meant they didn't put too much effort into securing the weapon – and found herself in front of the last door, a huge, ugly metal thing that was fortified with magic.

With a smirk, she quickly reached into her magic and then seconds later turned the door into a pile of dirt and sand that stood momentarily upright before immediately falling and spreading out unceremoniously all over the floor. There was a sound akin to rushing water as the dirt and sand moved, and a cloud of dirt filled the air. She held her breath so as not to inhale any of it and a second later she cleared it away with a simple wind spell that blew air through the underground hallways. Looking into the vault, her eyes finally beheld the prize that she was ordered to retrieve over a year ago.

Its destructive power was legendary, at least to those few who knew of it, and it would be incredibly helpful to the cause of the _Reconquista _in Albion. If things were going as planned, the time was coming for them to go into open rebellion and they would need all the firepower they could muster to achieve their goals. Toppling an ancient monarchy was no easy task, even with the support of some ambitious and treacherous nobles. This weapon would certainly help tip the scales though.

Unfortunately, Longueville didn't know how it worked. Her research into the weapon had turned up very little other than the fact that it existed and that it felled a full-grown dragon in one strike. That in itself spoke to the unimaginable power that the staff contained. Still, with it safely in their hands she figured it would only be a matter of time before they unlocked its secrets and wielded its destructive power for their own ends.

Walking over to the strange-looking metal staff, she hefted it and discovered that it was surprisingly heavy. Almost unwieldy even. She found it difficult to imagine a mage carrying this around all the time, though perhaps they simply had to get used to it. Carefully, she turned it over in her hands and inspected it, though not too closely or thoroughly lest she accidentally set it off here and bury herself beneath the rubble of the Academy. Wouldn't that be something.

With growing excitement and more than a little nervousness, she carefully placed it into a cloth bag that she had brought and slung it over her shoulder. Then, with a smile of self-satisfaction, she left a note and a little something else on the stone pedestal that the staff had been resting on in the center of the circular vault.

She only wished she could be there to see the look on his face when the old pervert found it.

**=x=x=x=x=X****=x=x=x=x=**

Duchess Karin de la Vallière was very much used to the blissful days of peace and quiet out in the countryside at the Vallière Estate, where she was free to pursue whatever struck her fancy. After an eventful decade as a knight of the kingdom in her youth followed by almost three hectic decades spent raising her family, Karin now had so much more time to herself these days, time that she spent either on her duties and responsibilities as a duchess or relaxing and enjoying a much slower-paced life.

These days, she was simply content to read books and relax while waiting for the next social event on her calendar, which wasn't too far off – just a simple get-together planned at a neighboring estate among the noble ladies of the region. Husbands were not invited, much to the duke's disappointment, though this get-together was actually in response to the big hunt that all the noble men were going to that week.

Today appeared to be no different than any other. The duchess spent most of it with a book in hand while out on the back terrace of the mansion that overlooked the main gardens. She hardly spent any time indoors because the weather was simply perfect outside, not too hot with a gentle breeze blowing and just enough cloud cover to prevent or at least minimize damage to her fair skin from prolonged exposure to the sun. There were potent creams nowadays to deal with that, but it was still unpleasant between the time you got burned and the time you applied the creams.

The duchess was currently reading a relatively new book that was published about the rumored exploits of an order of knights in Albion called the Knights of the Round Table. Their name was simple but odd, though she'd of course heard worse, and apparently they did in fact have a round table that they often gathered around before and after they went out on missions. She thought it was kind of cute in a way, not that she'd ever admit such a thing aloud. Anyone who knew her would know that she never said the word cute.

She couldn't decide how much of what was described in the book was real and how much of it was embellishment, but she found it an entertaining read nonetheless, and it was certainly something that reminded her of her glory days as the leader of the vaunted Manticore Knights. Her wild and reckless days. It certainly felt like a whole lifetime ago.

She was in the middle of reading about the Round Table Knights and their encounter with a young wild dragon off of the frigid northern coast of Albion, a story that certainly piqued her interest, when she was interrupted by the gentle voice of her second-eldest daughter, Cattleya.

"Good afternoon, mother," greeted the young woman genially as she seemed to almost glide over to where the duchess was sitting in one of the verandas around the mansion.

Looking up from her book, Karin allowed herself a hint of a smile at the sight of her. She was beautiful, and it wasn't too prideful of her to say that they looked very much alike, though Karin was certainly the more slender of the two, and while Cattleya's lush pink hair was as long as hers, the younger girl had so much more of it. It was a wonder that she was able to keep it all under control with the help of a few well-placed gold ribbons and what was probably a lot of combing.

"I hope you haven't been pushing yourself too hard today, Cattleya. You must remember not to strain yourself," she said as she fixed the girl with one of her stern motherly gazes.

Cattleya smiled, her delicate features twisting slightly from the effort, as she carefully lowered herself into a seat next to the duchess. "I actually feel quite good today, mother." And indeed she looked well too, better than Karin remembered seeing her in recent days.

"I'm glad to hear it, child, but don't push yourself too hard all the same. You might feel fine now, but if you overexert yourself you know you'll be paying for it later," she warned in a motherly tone to match her gaze.

"Thank you for the warning, mother. I'm being careful. You needn't worry so much about me."

"Being a mother means I'm _always_ worried about you," she reminded her pointedly.

The young woman giggled softly, reaching up a hand to cover her mouth. "What about Eleanor?"

"I'm also her mother, am I not? A mother worries about her children all the time."

"I guess it can't be helped then," said Cattleya, followed by another soft giggle.

Karin's hint of a smile turned into an actual one. "No it cannot," she said, and her smile quickly faded as she was reminded of the fact that Cattleya was still unmarried even though she was almost a quarter century old, and likely wouldn't be able to find anyone to marry for that matter due to her condition, and would therefore be unable to become a mother of her own some day. The girl was never going to feel the way Karin felt now. Though the way she dotes on her younger sister Louise might be as close to being a mother as she could get in this life.

Cattleya had a strange illness that unfortunately was incurable, at least according to the healers. _All_ the healers, and they did bring pretty much all the most renowned ones to their estate to check on her. In fact, they said she might be the only one they know of with this sickness. A cruel fate for one so young and fair.

It limited her ability to perform magic, because every spell she cast risked her life, not that it stopped the girl from studying and improving her magic anyway. The Vallières were a stubborn lot. At least simpler spells were not too much of a burden on her, but if she ever tried to cast advanced spells she would be risking serious injury or even death.

They chatted for a little while longer, and it was only at a longer lull in their chatting that the duchess noted the sun was already beginning to set as the sky changed into hues of burning orange and red. So engrossed was she in her book as well as in conversation with her daughter that the time had simply flown by. Not that she minded, for time passing swiftly meant time spent well from her experience.

"Have you heard from your sister Éléonore? Will she be joining us this evening for dinner?" asked the duchess as she marked where she was in her book and stood up.

Cattleya also got to her feet. "No, mother. She's still visiting with her fiancé, Count de Burgundy."

Ah. The Count de Burgundy. Karin found the man to be rather... soft. But he was reasonably intelligent and polite, plus his family was wealthier than most and certainly well-connected, so the betrothal was arranged between their families and both children agreed happily enough at first. Lately though, there seemed to be some trouble brewing between the two, though Éléonore was loathe to talk about it. Karin only hoped it wasn't anything too serious.

There was nothing in this world she wanted more than for her children's futures to be secured and for them to be happy. Finding them suitable husbands was a task she took very seriously, but the pickings were rather slim in Tristain, at least among Éléonore's and Cattleya's age. Louise, on the other hand, might have a few promising prospects. Age was not necessarily that much of a barrier to marriage among the nobility, but she would at least like to set up her daughters with someone close to their age if she could help it.

"And what of your younger sister? Have you heard from Louise of late?" asked the duchess as she began to walk back inside, followed closely by her daughter.

"The last letter she sent me was at the start of her second year of studies at the Academy. She says she's well but that her magic is still..." Cattleya's voice fell as a sad look played out on her pretty face.

A waiting servant dutifully opened the glass french doors that led into one of several parlor rooms, and it was the closest entry into the mansion from the terrace they were just at. The servant bowed as they passed him by and then left to clean up the terrace area, where the duchess had earlier had some light food and refreshments.

Karin was most concerned about her little girl. The youngest and third daughter of the Vallière family, Louise looked so very much like Karin did when she was her age. The resemblance was so striking that if anyone were to look at pictures of Karin as a child and put them side-by-side with pictures of Louise, they would think them to be one and the same person. Even her temperament was similar. Louise had a stubborn and sometimes defiant personality, one that served her well given her situation.

The poor girl wasn't able to perform a proper spell, and it baffled Karin. Louise's magic was incredibly volatile, resulting in explosions of varying intensity depending on the power and complexity of the spell she was attempting to cast. Any attempts to fix her problem with private tutors and even healers had so far led to failure and further accidental explosions, until Louise was actually _banned _from practicing any magic inside the mansion.

It was not easy on their family, and certainly not easy on Louise, but Karin was at least proud of her youngest daughter's willingness to push through and enroll in the Academy anyway despite her obvious... problems. She wanted to try and master her magic so that she could become a real mage like the rest of them, and Karin didn't really know what else to do with her so she allowed it. All of them were hopeful that studying there might provide some results, but as far as Karin knew there has been little to no progress.

Karin was starting to think that it was a fruitless endeavor for the girl to become a mage. At least she wasn't ill like Cattleya, so Louise could potentially find a willing husband. That might be the only course of action left to her, considering her failures with magic. The duchess made a mental note to begin searching for suitable candidates. Perhaps after Louise's second year of studies, if there has still been no progress made, she would have the girl return to the estate and await betrothal.

Another servant was standing by an interior door that led into a hallway that spanned the length of the mansion, and she bowed to them respectfully, informing them that dinner would be ready in an hour as scheduled. They passed by several more servants on their way to their respective bedchambers on the third floor, where they got ready for dinner.

When the duchess finally made her way downstairs to the main dining room, a large rectangular space with high ceilings and a table long enough to accommodate up to sixteen people, she was stopped by Edward, the head butler. The wrinkled butler had served her family since Karin was Louise's age, and his age was starting to show.

"Forgive me, madam," he began with a sweeping bow, "There is a man waiting outside requesting an audience with you. He says that it's a matter most urgent regarding the young Lady Louise. I was not aware you were expecting anyone so I told him to wait while I informed you."

Karin arched an eyebrow at him. "I was not expecting anyone. He said he's here about Louise...? Did he give his name?"

"Jean Colbert, madam. He claims to be a professor at the Academy that Lady Louise currently attends."

What's happened now? Has she blown up half the Academy? Worried thoughts scrambled through her mind and Karin did her best to stamp down the feeling of dread that filled her. Calmly, she told Edward to bring this so-called professor to her immediately. Her initial thought was that something bad had happened, but perhaps he was here to relay some good news about the girl. Maybe she finally had a breakthrough and was able to wield her magic properly. She could only hope that were the case.

Shortly thereafter, a man slightly taller than Karin, and who looked vaguely familiar, arrived and bowed rather stiffly. Karin noted he seemed about as nervous as a mouse in a house of cats, and she suddenly wished she had her wand with her. Not that she was totally defenseless, especially with her servants nearby, and not that she was expecting to be attacked, but it was not totally out of the realm of possibility that he was here to somehow harm her.

"Good evening, Duchess Vallière. I'm Professor Jean Colbert from the Academy of Magic. I apologize for arriving at your home unannounced, which is quite lovely by the way... your home... but... ahem, well... there's really no other way for me to say this... so I'll just... well I'll just get right to it, I suppose..." the man rambled as he fumbled a bit while adjusting his eyeglasses. His hands were shaking slightly like he was afraid.

Karin looked at him expectantly because he actually went quiet for a few seconds and did not, as he had said, get right to it. Her stare was imposing and her face a blank mask. "Well, Professor Colbert? You said you had urgent news about my daughter, Louise?"

"Yes... well, you see... we're not really sure how it happened and... it was so sudden... but we're doing everything we can to-"

"What. Has. Happened?" the duchess said, her voice taking on an edge. Her eyes narrowed at him.

Professor Colbert, like so many lesser men who had stood before her, withered under the intensity of her attention as he stammered a reply that sent a shock through the duchess and left her speechless.

"S-Sorry... L-Louise has... she's d-disappeared... and we c-can't find her."

**=x=x=x=x=X****=x=x=x=x=**

**Author's Note: **Thank you so much to everyone who has favorited, followed, and reviewed so far. I appreciate you all :) Hope you're still enjoying my little project.

A few of you requested getting a glimpse of the goings on back in Halkeginia. Events are afoot there as well, some things are similar but ultimately different now that Louise is out of the picture, though I didn't plan on covering it in much detail until we get to... well, I shan't spoil anything. To be honest, I haven't watched the anime in a long time, and I haven't touched the manga at all, so this chapter was a bit tough to write and a lot of this might not be quite... canon, though I suppose it's not necessarily a bad thing considering this whole thing is an AU work to begin with.

Hmm... not sure if I want to post a chapter every now and then about the current state of things in Halkeginia or not. That'll certainly add to the number of chapters and words (read: it'll be more work for me) but it might make it even more interesting for when things get... crazy later, in both worlds :p As usual, let me know your thoughts and I'll see ya next chapter as we focus back on Louise and her new... friends.


	6. Chapter 5

**X**

**Unfamiliar Zero**

**Chapter 5**

**=x=x=x=x=X=x=x=x=x=**

Louise paused long enough to draw in a big breath of cool air. Sweeping the floors was not too difficult of an activity in itself, but the amount of sweeping she had done so far, and still had to do, was considerable. It was now a few hours past midday and she had been at it since morning, yet there was still plenty more to be done on this level of the fortress.

Ten days had already passed since she first started working directly for the Head Butler, and the young girl was finding it increasingly difficult to keep up with what was being asked of her. Her body ached all over and every muscle constantly felt stiff and tired. If Bartho noticed, he didn't seem to care, because her workload appeared to grow by the day and she went to bed each night feeling even more exhausted than the last.

In fact, she had been working so hard that she hadn't even had much time to think of a way to get out of her current situation. And she knew this could not go on for too long. A life of tedious manual labor such as this did not suit her in the slightest. But she dared not ask for a reprieve. She still had some pride left and she was not about to show any more weakness here than she already had.

She quickly glanced around the outer courtyard, one of several in this massive fortress, making sure she was alone. There were trees and stone benches and flowering bushes. All of which had been overgrown and wild until only a few days ago, when she was tasked with cleaning up all the outer courtyards. This was the last, and largest, of eight courtyards found all around the keep. For a place called the Black Fortress, it certainly had a lot of space for entertainment and recreation.

Overhead, the ever-present gray clouds clung to the mountain into which the fortress city was built, hiding the sun as usual. Out here the air was nice and cool and far fresher than inside, but the lack of direct sunlight was starting to get to her. Not once had she seen the sun since she arrived in this strange land, and she was beginning to wonder if there even _was_ a sun in this strange world.

Deciding to take a break, Louise leaned the broom she had been using to sweep against the low wall that separated her from the edge of a very long fall. A fall that would mean certain death. She tried not to think about it as she leaned on the wall, feeling the cool stones against her palms as she looked out at the fortress city below. It stretched out from the base of the fortress, full of lifeless dark buildings of every shape and size. All of them draped in silence and, at least to her, wrapped in mystery. Beyond the outer walls was a vast forest with even darker trees that seemed to go on all the way to the horizon in every direction.

Despite the eerie stillness, she had to admit that there was a certain beauty to the place, and she spent some time admiring the view.

Once she was finished with her duties at the keep, she wondered if Bartho would make her clean the other buildings in the city. Noting the sheer number of them, she winced at the thought. Hopefully that wouldn't come to pass. Though she did want to go out and explore this lifeless city for herself some day. Even back in Tristain she had barely explored the country, let alone the world beyond it. She only knew about the wider world through her books and classes at the academy. Now some part of her felt excited at the prospect of being somewhere totally new. Of seeing things she, or anyone back home, had ever seen before.

Louise felt a prickling sensation on the back of her neck and glanced around the courtyard again, having the strangest sensation that someone was watching her, but saw no one.

The first few days of working under Bartho had involved the butler actually observing her directly as she went about doing things he ordered her to do. Not once did he ever physically help her with her work, regardless of whether she was doing it correctly or not. What he did do was to comment on what she was doing and how she was doing it, with the intention of correcting and instructing her on how to properly perform the tasks asked of her. And he had _a lot _to teach her on how to be a proper maid. So much so that Louise was surprised the butler hadn't already snapped at her for her incompetence. His patience was almost unnatural.

Louise, on the other hand, barely managed to endure it. There were times when her instinct told her to talk back or to simply give up on the task, but how could she when she knew that her life likely hung in the balance? Any wrong move could be her last, and of all the things she didn't want to do, dying in this strange land was at the top of the list.

Thankfully, Bartho eventually stopped following her around. That was about two days ago. Whether it was because he was now confident enough in her abilities not to watch over her shoulder or because he finally was attending to his own duties, Louise wasn't sure. Regardless of the reasons for his leaving her alone these days, she was most relieved. The butler did, of course, check in on her from time to time, and he seemed to have the uncanny ability to find her wherever she might be, but otherwise she was left to her own devices. Only at the end of the day was she to report to him about all that she had accomplished, and if there was anything of note to mention.

"Enjoying the view?" asked a now familiar voice behind Louise, startling her into turning around and grabbing the broom to use as a weapon.

"Lady Elena!" Louise gasped at the unexpected arrival. The ability of this woman, and Bartho for that matter, to sneak up on her so easily was simply amazing. And frightening.

Lady Elena stood before her with a smirk, dressed in yet another beautiful gown that was equal parts elegant and seductive. The chosen color today was emerald green. Something that Louise knew Lady Jade would probably approve of. The warrior was most fond of the color.

Louise had learned from Bartho that Lady Elena was an actual _queen_, and that certainly explained the air of supreme confidence and superiority that the woman had about her. And she was not just any queen either. She apparently had the specific and rather imposing title of Night Queen, the significance of which was of course lost on the girl from another world. And why the woman wanted to be called a mere Lady was beyond Louise's understanding. If Louise were a queen, she would want to be honored by her title at all times. Her Royal Majesty, Queen Louise, certainly had a nice ring to it.

"Tell me, my dear, what exactly did you think you were going to do with _that?_" Lady Elena asked with amusement, raising one of her thin eyebrows at the broom held menacingly over Louise's shoulder.

Embarrassed, Louise put it down and bowed her head. "I-I'm sorry, Lady Elena… y-you startled me and…"

Lady Elena chuckled. "You need to learn to relax! You always seem so tense and anxious. Perhaps you need a massage to help ease the tensions you are feeling. I can give you one, if you'd like." She smiled, showing her perfectly white teeth. And her sharp fangs.

Louise bowed her head again, partly to avoid looking at her fangs, and swallowed hard. "I uh... appreciate the offer, my Lady. But I must decline for now." In truth, the prospect of receiving a massage was very tempting, given the tortured state of her body at the moment. Were it not for her fear that Lady Elena might try and bite her again during the massage, Louise might have accepted the offer in a heartbeat.

Lady Elena shrugged and walked up to stand next to her by the low wall. "Suit yourself." She looked out at the view that Louise had been admiring only moments before. "It's beautiful, isn't it? Even in its… diminished state."

Louise followed her gaze out towards the city below.

"You should have seen it back in its day. It used to be so full of life here. So full of energy and excitement," continued Lady Elena. "This fortress may have been built as a place for war, but it eventually grew to become a proper city. With all the sights and sounds. . . and smells!" She let out a soft laugh and shook her head ever so slightly. "Oh, the smells. . ." she whispered fondly at the memories that came to her.

"Good smells, then?" Louise asked curiously.

"Sometimes," replied Lady Elena amusingly.

Louise smiled a little.

"There were all manner of creatures here too, from all across the continent," continued Lady Elena. "Dragons and wyverns and other beasts. Trolls and ogres. Orcs and goblins. Elves and humans. Dwarves and gnomes. Vampires and… _lycans_." Her face crinkled at the word, as if it left a bad taste in her mouth.

It sounded almost unbelievable to have so many creatures and races together in one place. "Lycans?" asked Louise, noting the disdain with which Lady Elena had said the word. She didn't know what vampires were either, but she figured she could ask about that later. She was more curious about the creatures that Lady Elena apparently disliked.

"Yes. Those mangy mutts were barely tolerable back then, but I hate to admit that they certainly had their uses too."

Louise frowned. "I'm sorry for my ignorance, my Lady, but. . . what is a lycan?"

Lady Elena's red eyes snapped to Louise. "You don't have them in your world?"

Louise shook her head. "N-No, my Lady. This is the first time I've heard of them."

"A fine world to be in, then," mused the lady with another smirk. "A lycan is a hybrid creature, my dear. Part wolf and part man. They can change their form between human and wolf. Hairy, smelly things that look like humans with sharp claws and foul tempers. Some can control the change at will. Others cannot. But for one night every month, _all of them_ cannot stop the change into their wolf forms. Perhaps you know them as werewolves."

Louise did not, in fact, know them as werewolves either. "That sounds like a curse," she observed quietly.

"Oh, it certainly is."

Louise tried to imagine such creatures and shuddered at the image that formed in her head. A snarling wolf as tall as a man and standing on two legs like one. "One night a month. . . What night is that?" she asked.

"The night of the full moon, of course," answered Lady Elena with a smile. "When the full moon comes, they are all forced into their wolf forms. Some can't control themselves while under the effects of the full moon, however, and they are incredibly troublesome to deal with at that time because the full moon happens to also boost all their abilities. If you ever happen to encounter a feral one out in the wild during a full moon, I suggest you run away as quickly as you can before it tears you into bloody unrecognizable pieces. And it would be such a pain to collect them all for burial."

Louise barely registered the new information that there appeared to only be one moon in this world as she shivered at the thought of being eviscerated by wolfmen. She squinted at the massive forest in the distance. "Are there any around here?" she asked nervously.

Lady Elena laughed. "Goodness no! They know better than to intrude on my domain."

"Your domain?" Though Louise knew that Lady Elena was a queen, she wasn't sure exactly what domain she ruled over. Was this all her land? But if that were the case, what realm did Lord Kaji rule over?

"Well…" Lady Elena blinked, this time her eyes went up to the highest part of the fortress well above them. "Not the Black Fortress specifically. But the neighboring land. In order to get here from where they now make their home, those beasts who play at men would need to cross my domain of Nifleheim. And they should know better than to attempt such a thing." She raised a hand and inspected her elegantly long nails as they settled into a quiet moment, each one lost in their own thoughts.

Louise digested that piece of information for a moment. Nifleheim. That was Lady Elena's name too, if she was remembering correctly. Marielena von Nifleheim. She broke the silence with a question. "If I may ask, my Lady, why do you hate the lycans?"

Lady Elena laughed. "Now _that _is a very long story. Perhaps one day I'll share it with you, if you're lucky."

"But. . . they were here too, right? Long ago when this place was still alive. That means you must have gotten along with them at some point."

"I said they were barely tolerable and had their uses," clarified Lady Elena. "We most certainly did not get along, that I can assure you. But we all served Lord Kaji back then and he did not tolerate any in-fighting. At least not out in the open. And trust me when I say that Lord Kaji is the last person in this world you'd want to anger."

Louise nodded. She definitely would not want to ever get that demon angry at her. And it only made sense that a ruler would demand his subjects be at peace with each other, despite any significant differences they might have between themselves. Unruly subjects meant an unruly kingdom, and that was something a good ruler simply could not allow.

"Was it like that with all the other races?" asked Louise.

"Yes and no. Some of them got along well while others didn't. But like I said, all who came here respected the rule of the Demon Lord and there was very little trouble. In public, at least."

"Would they not try to come back here then? Now that he's returned?" asked Louise, curious to see these lycans for herself. As well as all the other races that Lady Elena had mentioned.

The Night Queen crossed her arms over her ample chest and stared out at the landscape. "The others, perhaps. . . once they've learned of Lord Kaji's return. . . but the lycans? I very much doubt that. They were one of the first to abandon this place once Lord Kaji secluded himself beyond our reach. To come crawling back would be. . . upsetting. To me at least." Her eyes glowed menacingly at the thought, and Louise realized it was probably best not to continue with this conversation. For now, anyway.

As if thinking that very same thing, Lady Elena frowned and closed her eyes. She took a deep breath, and when her eyes opened again they were no longer glowing. "Now enough of that nonsense," she declared, waving her hand to signal an end to that line of conversation. "I didn't come here to talk to you about the lycans."

What did she come here for then? Louise eyed the woman warily. "Am I in trouble, my Lady?" she asked tentatively.

"Oh no, not at all. Bartho tells me you've been working hard for him. There have been only a few complaints." She sounded a little impressed. "For someone with little to no prior experience as a maid, it's commendable that you have learned so much and worked so hard to improve in such a short time."

"I. . . am doing my best, my Lady," replied Louise, surprised at the praise and unsure of how to respond to it.

Lady Elena gave her a curious look. "But he hasn't been working you _too_ hard, has he? He's used to presiding over other vampires in my household, so you are the first human to ever work for him. He might not have appropriately adjusted to the differences just yet."

As she suspected, Bartho and Lady Elena were not quite human after all. They were vampires. But what that really meant, she didn't know. Though it was obvious enough to her that vampires probably all had red eyes and pale skin, judging from the two of them. "It's been. . . challenging, my Lady. But nothing I can't handle so far." Regardless of how Louise physically felt, she did not want to show any more weakness. If she wanted to be strong, she needed to act strong too. Although a part of her couldn't help but feel worried at the prospect that her statement might spur the vampires to give her even more things to do.

"I see." Lady Elena sounded unconvinced, but did not press the subject. "But tell me, Louise, do you not wish to do more? To _be _more?"

Louise gave Lady Elena a questioning glance. "I'm sorry, my Lady, but I. . . I don't think I understand what you mean."

"Very well. Let me rephrase then. Are you happy with simply being a maid here in the Black Fortress?" asked Lady Elena, arching an eyebrow while her arms were still crossed.

"I. . ." Louise hesitated. She wasn't sure if she was being tested or not. Was she supposed to lie and say yes, or tell the truth and say no? Because of course she wasn't happy about her current situation. She was a noblewoman of the proud Vallière family reduced to being a common maid! Not that anyone here knew about her family and lineage, nor did she want to get in trouble for complaining to her betters.

Lady Elena smiled reassuringly. "You may speak freely, Louise. I promise that no harm will come to you for it."

Louise hesitated for a moment more, then said in a quiet voice, "No, my Lady. . . I. . . I am not happy with being a maid." It felt good to say it out loud. And to say it to someone else too. She only hoped that she wouldn't somehow be punished for her honesty later on.

"I thought not. You don't seem like the maid type." Lady Elena's smirk returned. "Are you hungry?" she asked suddenly.

Louise hadn't really thought much about food since breakfast early that morning, but the question made her realize that she was indeed starving. As if to reiterate that, her stomach grumbled loudly and she placed a hand over it, looking embarrassed.

Lady Elena's smirk widened. "Come with me."

**=x=x=x=x=**

"What a beautiful day!" cried the young prince clad in magnificent gold-lined armor. Cascading behind him was a fine black and red velvet cape. His wavy long auburn hair danced in the breeze, partially held down by the thin golden crown that rested on his head, while his handsomely angled face looked up at the sky with closed eyes, basking in the warmth of the sunlight.

"Your Highness, please mind where you are going," cautioned the stern-looking woman only a few feet away.

They rode atop well-bred horses decked out in fine regalia of their own, matching that of their riders. Behind them some ways was the rest of their group, armed and armored similarly. A few of them held banners prominently displaying what was widely recognized as the Acheron Imperial Family crest.

The prince turned towards the sound of the woman's voice and opened his eyes, revealing sharply violet pupils. "Bah! Don't ruin my fun, Lezana. We are on the Imperial Highway and in the very heart of the Empire. It's all paved stone and safe travels for now. And besides," he leaned over just enough to pat the side of his horse's neck. "Grim here would never succumb to any pits or stones on the road that might per chance throw me off. If there were any such things on the road in the first place."

"I am more concerned that you might accidentally run into other travelers on the road, your Highness. Or that you may ride into an ambush set by your enemies. Especially if you continue to gallop ahead of our company like this."

"Well any other travelers would see me coming and move accordingly. I don't see why I have to move aside for anyone. This is _my _road after all." The man grinned at the dark-haired woman, as if daring her to say otherwise. "As for the latter, well. . . that's why I have you here, isn't it? To watch out for me? You'd notice any ambush or danger that comes our way and deal with it appropriately. Am I right?"

Lezana sighed. "Yes, your Highness."

"Good." The grin turned into a beaming smile that showed off his pearly white teeth. They seemed to shine underneath the sunlight. "It's rare for me to get out of the capital, you know, so let me enjoy some of this freedom and change of scenery, okay?"

Again, Lezana sighed. "While I understand that you are enjoying your leave of the capital, your Highness, need I remind you that we are not on a vacation? We are on a very important, and _dangerous,_ mission for your father and for the Empire," she replied seriously. "I hope you are taking this matter seriously."

"Oh, please! Spare me your words of caution, Lezana. We all know the Demon Lord is long gone. It's been hundreds of years! The Black Fortress is nothing but a shadow of a dark past that we've long gotten away from. Whatever enemies are stirring up trouble there will meet their fate at the end of my blade. Or burn in the fires of my glory." He smiled as he looked up at the sky again, this time raising a hand towards the sun, as if to grasp it.

"Our mission isn't to eliminate the threat, your Highness, but to evaluate the strength of the enemy that now seeks to revive the Black Fortress," Lezana said in a lecturing tone.

"But while in the process of this evaluation, would it not be better if we also eliminated them at the same time?" queried the young royal. "Kill two bids with one stone, as they say."

"Well, yes your Highness, but if they happen to be stronger-"

"Nonsense!" The man cut his hand through the air dismissively. "I am Prince Firos Acheron of the mighty Acheron Empire! There is no enemy that I will not defeat, no challenge that I cannot overcome. Especially not with this equipment, " he patted the ornate hilt of the sword at his hip. "And the company we have assembled." He half-turned to look back towards the others trailing after them.

Lezana sighed and bowed her head. "As you say, your highness."

"I'm glad you agree," said Prince Firos with another smile. "It will take us some time to even get to the eastern border, let alone the Black Fortress. In the meantime, Lezana, I intend for us enjoy ourselves along the way. We will get down to serious business when we arrive at our destination, and no earlier!"

With that said, the prince spurred his horse into another gallop and let out a whoop of excitement as he sped off, Lezana desperately following after him.

**=x=x=x=x=**

**Author's Note: **Thanks for your continued readership. This is a shorter chapter than previous ones, but I wanted to put out an update to let you know that I am still continuing this. Writing multiple stories at a time has been incredibly challenging, on top of finding time to even write at all these days. More updates to come. See ya next chap!


	7. Chapter 6

**X**

**Unfamiliar Zero**

**Chapter 6**

**=x=x=x=x=X=x=x=x=x=**

There was already a generous amount of freshly cooked food prepared and waiting for them when they arrived at their destination. Even Louise's place had been set with everything arranged perfectly, as if he she had been expected to show up all along. She recognized the location as the same room that she had first dined in with the two ladies of the Black Fortress. Had that really only been a few days ago? It felt more like a whole month had passed since then.

They settled into their respective seats, though the one for Lady Jade was empty this time and Louise couldn't help but eye the unoccupied chair. Lady Elena apparently noticed her gaze and she briefly explained that Lady Jade was busy with something and was therefore unavailable. What exactly the lady warrior was busy with, the vampire did not say.

"Oh, and don't worry," said Lady Elena, "Bartho cooked the meal for us today, not Lady Jade. So you can feel free to eat to your heart's content." She did not bother hiding her amused grin at her own words.

Louise was relieved to hear that, having not been fond of Lady Jade's cooking, though she said nothing as she simply nodded her head and dug in. Sure enough, she found the food to be delicious, and far more exquisite than the simple meals that Bartho had been feeding her this whole time. It made her miss the meals they served at home, or even the Academy.

They ate in silence for a while, Louise losing herself in the enjoyment of a truly wonderful meal that more than filled the gnawing hunger in her gut while Lady Elena appeared to find it humorous to watch. Louise became gradually aware of the woman's unflinching stare between bites of food as the minutes passed, and she was quick to get a hold of herself and act the part of a proper lady, despite her current lowered status. She was slightly embarrassed that she had forgotten her manners so easily at the dining table.

Finally, once Louise finished with her meal, Lady Elena spoke.

"Well, my dear, you appeared to have worked out quite the appetite today. I'll be sure to relay to Bartho your clear enthusiasm for his cooking. Though I wonder what I should say to Lady Jade about your reaction to finding out this meal was not in any way her doing."

Louise's face turned almost as pink as her hair and she tried to say something in her defense, but ended up fumbling for words. She somehow imagined Lady Jade skewering her on the end of her spear and cooking _her _in anger.

The vampire queen smiled, showing her perfectly white teeth and her sharp fangs. "Oh little Louise, you can be so adorable when you're all flustered. I really could just eat you right up, and I'm sure Lord Kaji would forgive me eventually. . ." She sighed with apparent longing at the thought as she put a hand up to her own cheek.

Louise fidgeted in her seat. Even though such a remark no longer elicited outright fear in her, having gotten used to hearing such things from the lady the past few days, it still made her more than a little uncomfortable. Partly because there wasn't really any appropriate response to such a statement from her position, which meant she could say nothing afterwards.

That annoyed her to no end, though she of course would never let that show. It struck Louise that perhaps it was possible the servants back in Tristain had such thoughts and feelings about their noble masters too, and that troubled her. She had never really considered before how the servants felt about how they were spoken to and treated.

"So now that we've eaten our fill, we can move on to more important matters. Tell me dear, what kind of magic do you practice in your world?" asked Lady Elena, leaning forward in her chair and resting her elbows on the table, hands clasped together.

"M-Magic?" Louise said, wondering where this conversation was going.

"Yes. You _did_ say you could do magic, right? And that you studied at some academy of magic? What did they teach you over there? I'd really like to know."

"Y-Yes, my Lady. You remembered correctly. I. . . know about magic, and I was indeed studying at the Tristain Academy of Magic. So. . ." Louise rubbed her arm nervously as she thought of what to say. "Where should I begin?"

"The basics, of course," said the lady.

Louise spent the next few minutes explaining the basic principles of how magic worked according to how she understood it and what types of magic the people of Halkeginia could do. It was all essentially elemental magic, though there were some spells that didn't necessarily run on specific elements and so were more like general class spells, such as teleportation or item levitation. Or even basic cleaning like getting dirt off clothes or surfaces. However, the vast majority of spells in use were affiliated with specific elements.

The four main elements associated with magic were: Fire, Water, Air, and Earth. And there was a fifth element, classified as the Void, though it was incredibly rare for anyone to be able to cast Void magic and it hasn't been seen in centuries. Then she went over the classifications of the different shapes that defined the class of spells and mages.

There was dot, line, triangle, and square. The number of sides corresponded to the number of elements that a mage could competently wield, as well as the number of spells mixed into one. So a square class spell would have four separate spells inside it, each one could be different or they could also all be the same. For instance, a fireball spell at its most basic would be a dot fire spell, but combining the incantation for two dot fire spells would produce a stronger fireball and upgrade it to a line spell.

A mage didn't have to say any magic incantations out loud, but they at the very least had to _think _the correct incantations to invoke the magic. Then to a certain degree, they could control how the magic unfolded with their thoughts. Knowing the proper incantation meant being able to cast any spell, though Louise also explained that all spells required willpower, and the stronger the spells and the more elements involved, the greater the willpower cost in order to cast it.

Mages were all born with a different amount of willpower, and through training they could expand that reserve of willpower to a certain extent, but if a spell required more willpower than what was available, the spell would fail and the mage would pass out from exhaustion. Casting too many spells drained willpower and could force a mage to pass out from mental and physical fatigue.

Furthermore, emotional state and general energy levels, such as whether someone has had enough rest, had a big impact on the potency of spells as well. That also meant that if two mages of equal skill were to face each other, but one had a good night's rest while the other stayed awake all night, the mage who had rest would have the advantage.

She also mentioned that magic could be stored in items, like rings and armor, and that mages could only wield magic if using a wand or a staff of some variety. Finally, she added that the ability to tap into magic in order to wield it was entirely hereditary, with the nobility of every country being the only mages. It was impossible for anyone outside of noble bloodlines to wield magic.

"Is that so?" Lady Elena sounded surprised and then peered at her closely. "So that means you're a noble then, I presume?"

"I. . . uhh. . ." Louise mentally cursed herself. She had gotten so caught up in explaining what she knew about magic that she had forgotten that she was trying to keep her noble birth a secret.

The Night Queen thoughtfully tapped her elegant chin with a finger. "That would explain why you were rather abysmal at menial tasks and physical labor."

Louise laughed nervously and rubbed the back of her neck.

"But just so we are clear, my knowing that you are nobility from another world doesn't mean there will be any change to your situation here," Lady Elena said.

Louise nodded, unable to help feeling somewhat disappointed. She had expected as much, though the slim hope she had that revealing her noble heritage might earn her some kind of benefit was now officially thrown out the window.

"I will say that your world's understanding of magic seems. . . a tad too simplistic. A crude interpretation, to be quite frank. And while I don't doubt that it works, magic is so much more than what you've described. I am actually rather disappointed, but I suppose that the system of magic you were taught is to blame for that. For example, there are far more elements than the five you've described, such as dark magic, light magic, blood magic, and so forth."

Lady Elena continued to speak. "Willpower must refer to what we call mana here in this world, and you are correct in that everyone has their own pool of mana within them. Expanding the pool is definitely possible through training, as well as through rituals or items, however, it's also possible to tap into the magic that surrounds us and inhabits everything too, so mana isn't necessarily the be all, end all, of being able to cast spells, though the ability to do so is beyond most people. And results may vary depending on how powerful a person is to begin with, what kind of spell is being cast, as well as the amount of magic permeating the environment they are in."

Louise nodded, unsure of what to think just yet but soaking in all this information anyway. After all, she had seen for herself how different the magic seemed to work in this world, and how much more powerful Lady Elena was than anyone she had ever encountered before. Not to mention the others who she had met so far. She could certainly accept that her own understanding of magic was far inferior to theirs.

"Going off of that, it's also foolish to think that you even _need _a wand or staff to cast magic. Sure, I will admit that it certainly helps a lot, especially for newer magic users or for more complicated spells, but with enough training and sufficient discipline, you should be able to cast spells easily enough without needing the aid of a magical focus all the time," explained Lady Elena. She lazily held a palm out in front of her and a small ball of red-orange flame flashed into existence a few inches above it. The ball grew slightly larger, and then suddenly turned into a bright blue flame, then larger still as it turned into a dark purplish-black flame.

Then she wiggled her fingers around, and the ball danced and then stretched into a whirling column about ten inches tall over her hand, before she closed her fist and the flame extinguished itself. With a casual flick of her hand towards Louise, a gust of wind suddenly came out of nowhere and blew against the shocked girl, ruffling her dress and blowing her hair all over.

Louise raised her arms into an 'x' shape in an attempt to shield her face, but thankfully the gust of wind abruptly stopped and the air settled down as if nothing extraordinary happened to begin with.

"Then there are types of magic that aren't affiliated with any one specific element at all. Such as summoning magic or conjuring magic, to name a couple. You can even send blasts of concentrated raw magic at someone if you don't have a particular spell in mind, though it's a very inefficient use of your mana to do so."

The crackling of magical energy filled the air as two magic circles shone on the ground behind her. Then two beings emerged from the magic circles, each one sporting a pair of short, leathery wings. They were small and humanoid, though certainly would never be mistaken for human. Their heads looked like a cross between a crocodile and a monkey. Their skin was mottled gray, their ears large, sharp, and pointed, and they had small snouts with mouths filled with tiny fangs. Two small black horns twisted out from their skulls. They had red eyes with slit pupils, and a sinister air hung about them. As they materialized they began to beat their wings to stay aloft, long thin tails almost equal to the length of their torsos hung loosely behind them. Their hands had four digits, three fingers and a thumb, each one ending in a sharp claw of pure black.

Louise's eyes went wide at seeing the two creatures. She had forgotten to mention to Lady Elena that summoning magic _did_ exist in Halkeginia, but it wasn't really classified as a branch of magic that was commonly practiced. In fact, normally such magic was used only for summoning forth familiars to serve the mages. The thought of it reminded her of her own failure at that particular type of magic, and it was that failure that somehow brought her here in the first place.

"I'm not sure if you've seen these creatures before, but they are what we call _imps_," she said as she gestured towards the winged beings behind her. Their salivating mouths hung open, revealing their sharp teeth and thin, lengthy forked tongues. "They are low level summons that can generally be used for menial tasks, or to harass and distract an opponent. Though they are weak and can be bothersome to use since they're not exactly the smartest creatures and can be rather temperamental at times."

Lady Elena snapped her fingers and they promptly disintegrated into dust before that too dissipated into nothingness. "Well, I suppose that's enough of a display on my end. Now I think it's your turn," she said, looking expectantly at Louise.

"M-My turn?" Louise stuttered, not anticipating that she would have to put on a demonstration too.

"Certainly. I think it's only fair you show me some of the magic you've learned since I've shown you some of my own. Wouldn't you agree?"

"R-Right. Of course. That makes perfect sense," Louise said with a nervous laugh. Beads of sweat began to form on her brow. "But, about that. . . maybe it's uhh. . . not the best idea. . . to do it in here. We'll need some more space. . . And besides, I don't have my wand and. . ."

Lady Elena abruptly got to her feet, slapping her palms on the table and leaning forward, startling Louise who nearly fell out of her chair. "I know just the place! I've been meaning to do a check down there anyway, and you can grab your wand on the way too, so this would work perfectly. Now come along." She spoke with some excitement then promptly strode out of the room, leaving Louise to stare after her for a moment before scrambling to follow.

**=x=x=x=x=**

The chill air felt damp and heavy against her skin, making Louise shiver. She was still only wearing her maid outfit, which while now fitting comfortably snug to her petite frame thanks to Bartho, unfortunately did little to keep her warm. Not that she had anything warm to change into anyways, and besides, keeping warm wasn't exactly important these days given the comfortable temperatures she normally worked in.

However, at that moment, the young girl wasn't anywhere she normally worked and was actually several levels below the surface of the earth after following Lady Elena's descent into the lower levels of the keep.

Louise was well aware that the keep was a massive structure, but to her surprise it was even larger than she thought now that she knew it even extended underground. The grand spiral staircase that ran through the center of the keep continued downward into the dark depths of the earth even deeper than the level that they eventually stepped off at, and it made her wonder just how far down it went and why.

As was the case in the floors aboveground, the torches, sconces, and braziers that lay dormant for untold years all magically roared to life as they approached, and kept burning after they passed, illuminating the otherwise dark halls of the underground. Cast in the light of the magical fires, the stonework was evidently impressive, and the two of them passed many detailed carvings and statues depicting warriors, beasts, and places that were all mostly unrecognizable to Louise. The amount and quality of work that went into carving these halls into the earth was beyond impressive, and Louise could only marvel at the sights.

"If you're this impressed with these silent halls, I'd love to see your reaction when you see the ancient underground cities of the dwarves themselves," remarked Lady Elena. "We had our own dwarves build this place beneath the Black Fortress, which is why it's so masterfully done, but even I have to admit that it pales in comparison to the extraordinary wonders they've accomplished in their stone kingdoms beneath their mountains."

Dwarves.

Louise knew the word. It was used to describe people born with deformities that stunted their growth, leading them to remain small in stature compared to normal humans. They could be old, and yet still be no taller than a child of twelve summers in some cases. She didn't think she could be any more impressed with the quality of the stonework, architecture, and construction of these underground halls, but she imagined that the race of people known as the dwarves in this world were somewhat similar to the dwarf people of her own, and the fact that they could build something so grand was truly astounding.

"Lady Elena, these dwarves you speak of," she said. "They are a people of small stature?" She wanted to know for sure.

The Night Queen stopped walking and turned to her. "In terms of height, yes they are a very short people, but while they are normally at most five feet tall, they are usually quite stout and far stronger than they appear. They resemble humans and tend to naturally live longer than humans, though not by much. The vast majority of them inhabit the deep tunnels and caverns beneath the many mountains of the world. Similar to what you can see here." She waved her hand around.

"What are they like?"

"Hmm. . . They are renowned for the works of their hands, particular with metals, stones, and jewels, and they normally live underground within their own kingdoms and clans. In fact, it is not uncommon for some of them to never see the sky for their entire life. Like any other race, there are some who are loud and some who are quiet. Others who work hard and still others who are lazy, and so on. . . But I suppose you could say that they generally tend to be proud, stubborn, quick-tempered, traditional, brash, and blunt."

Like she had felt with the lycans, Louise very much wanted to meet the dwarves and see them for herself. She was particularly interested in watching them work, thinking that it must be a fascinating sight to behold such master craftsmen. "Are there any still here?" she asked, looking around as if she might catch sight of one right then.

"I doubt it, but that is what we are going to find out," said Lady Elena with a smirk, then she resumed her walking.

Not long after, they emerged into a cavernous hall with a high ceiling held up by dozens of massive stone pillars. The square pillars were lined in perfect rows in front of them, each one intricately carved with the exact same symbols and designs. Louise estimated that each pillar was about fifty feet tall, and she marveled at how the dwarves could have built this place with such precision and attention to detail.

"I believe that this is the central plaza. Supposedly, it is located at the heart of the mountain, whatever that means, but I wouldn't know for sure since it all looks the same to me," said Lady Elena. She glanced at Louise, who was marveling openly at the plaza. "To be honest, they were still carving this out the last time I was here, so just like you this is the first time I'm seeing this place. Quite a sight, isn't it?"

"It's amazing," Louise said softly. "You left before they finished?"

"Indeed. I was one of the last of Lord Kaji's loyal servants to leave the Black Fortress, but I eventually did once it became clear that he was not returning anytime soon," she said. "When I left, the dwarves who remained numbered only a few, but they were hard working and skilled at their craft, and they vowed to finish the city that Lord Kaji had approved for them to build beneath the Black Fortress so that one day their kin might return here. It appears that they did finish, or at least made significant progress towards that goal. At the very least, they appeared to have completed significant portions of what they planned, like this plaza, and even the grand staircase was extended farther down than I remember."

"It really is something," Louise said in awe. "I wonder how long it took them to build all of this."

"Probably a few decades at the very least, considering how few of them were left to do the work," guessed the vampire queen. "In hindsight, I probably should have checked on them before today, but I had a lot of things to deal with on my own the last couple of centuries and I forgot about them until recently."

"And it looks like they're all gone now," said Louise with a frown. She ran a hand against the smooth, cold stone of one of the pillars, tracing some of the designs carved into it with her fingers.

"I suppose this is a good enough spot," Lady Elena said as she raised her arms up to her sides.

A rush of magic washed through Louise and she glanced at the lady with surprise. Her eyes widened at seeing what appeared to be shadowy figures writhing and circling around her, accompanied by the sound of something like wind rustling through leaves or ruffling sheets of cloth.

"Go forth and search every corner of these underground halls for any dwarf who still lives," the Night Queen commanded. Tendrils of shadow shot out in all directions before dispersing entirely, leaving them alone and in silence once more.

Louise gently shook her head in disbelief. The more strange magic she saw from the woman, the more she wanted to learn it. If Louise was a failure in learning magic in her old world, and the knowledge of magic in that world was considered rudimentary by Lady Elena, perhaps here Louise would actually be able to learn proper magic. Perhaps things would finally turn out differently for once.

"What were those things?" she asked.

"Shadow fiends," replied Lady Elena. "It will take them a little while before they come back to us." She turned around and settled her gaze on Louise. "More than enough time for you to demonstrate some of your magic while we wait. This should also be ample space for a demonstration too, so there's no need to worry about that."

Louise rolled the wand she was holding in her right hand and nodded slowly, feeling the smooth wood against her fingers. There was no escaping it now. She raised her wand, making sure to point it away from Lady Elena. She opened her mouth, hesitated, and then said, "Lady Elena, my apologies, but. . . maybe you should take a few more steps back?"

Lady Elena looked at her skeptically, then took one small step back. She planted her hands to her hips. "Go on. Quit stalling."

Nodding, Louise took a deep breath and focused her mind on the incantation she wanted to use. A simple illumination spell. Nothing fancy. Her goal was to project a beam of light out from the tip of her wand. Easy enough, right? Her whole body tensed in anticipation. She rehearsed the incantation once more and then said it under her breath. Immediately she felt the magic course through her, then wildly flow into and around her wand, where it suddenly escaped beyond her control like it had done many times before. She had a split second to cringe before it happened.

BOOM!

**=x=x=x=x=**

The floor vibrated briefly and Jade stopped talking as soon as she saw Lord Kaji hold up a hand. His eyes were closed as he relaxed on the cushioned recliner not far from her, looking very comfortable even after having listened to Jade recount all that had happened between the time he went into seclusion and the time she was placed into stasis herself.

"An explosion?" He said all of a sudden, eyes partially opening and glancing down at the floor towards the source of the disturbance. "Tell me, Jade, do you know what trouble Elena is getting up to right now?"

A frown creased Jade's delicate features. She had heard and felt the explosion too, faint though it was. "She is playing with her new toy, my Lord."

Lord Kaji settled his steady gaze on the beautiful warrior woman. "Explain."

With a sigh at the thought of Elena, Jade shifted on the couch next to the recliner and said, "Elena wishes to train that human girl with the pink hair. Apparently the girl can wield magic of some variety, and I think Elena suspects that she has something to do with your sudden return. Therefore, I believe she wants to study the girl and learn more about her and her magic."

"I see. That would explain her interest in the girl." Lord Kaji closed his eyes again and leaned his head back. "What do you think?"

"I think it's a foolish endeavor, my Lord, and a waste of Elena's time and efforts that could be better spent elsewhere. We all agree that the human girl is pathetically weak, so I think there's really no point in training her. What tangible benefit would that provide? Bartho currently has her working as a maid here at the keep, which should be more than enough for a simple little girl like her."

Honestly, since first setting eyes on the girl, Jade had felt nothing but contempt. The girl was weak and pathetic, and she had pissed herself in the throne room of all places. In front of Lord Kaji himself, no less! Such an act could not easily be forgotten, let alone forgiven, by the proud warrior. A part of her was almost sure that Elena was taking a liking to the girl simply to piss her off too.

Lord Kaji chuckled. "Judging by your speech, I take it you haven't interacted with the girl much since you got her settled in?"

"Not really, my Lord. We dined together once after that, but that is the extent of my interaction with her thus far."

"You shared a meal with her?" The Demon Lord sounded surprised.

"Elena was there too. It wasn't like we were alone," she added hastily, then as an afterthought added, "And I. . . I cooked."

Lord Kaji half-opened his eyes again, silver eyes sliding over in her direction. "You did what?"

Jade lowered her head, fidgeting as she glanced towards her spear standing upright by the entrance to Lord Kaji's chambers. "I cooked the food for our meal at that time, my Lord. In fact, Elena and that human girl seemed to enjoy it, since they ate it all."

"That might be the most surprising thing I've heard from you today," mused the Demon Lord. "I didn't think you could cook, let alone that you had any interest in it."

Jade could feel her cheeks warming as she looked away. "I was. . . trying to learn."

"Whatever for?" Lord Kaji asked. "Are you not my right hand? The commander of my armies? I would think such trivial matters as cooking to be beneath you."

"W-Well, yes, Lord Kaji. You are of course correct on all accounts, but I. . ."

"But what? Did you not just say that Elena's desire to train the girl was a waste of time and effort that could be better spent doing something better? How is it any different than you learning how to cook? We have properly trained servants for such things, or if not, we could surely acquire some easily enough." Despite his words, Lord Kaji did not appear to be disappointed nor angry about her foray into cooking. Merely curious. Though Jade felt embarrassed about the whole thing regardless.

She thought carefully of a good answer. "I am, first and foremost, your servant and right hand, my Lord. My duties extend beyond simply being the commander of your armies. As your right hand, I should be able to support you, to protect you, and to carry out your will at all times in any situation. I simply thought that adding cooking to my list of skills would help me serve you better and thus make you happier. Particularly in the event that there be no adequately skilled cooks available to prepare a meal befitting of someone of your stature."

"Hmm. . . is that the only reason?"

Jade went from pink to crimson. "Y-Yes, my Lord."

He eyed her for a moment, then shut his eyes once again. "Then I look forward to sampling one of your meals."

Jade blinked in surprise, unwilling at first to believe what she was hearing. A second later and a feeling of elation filled her, quickly followed by nervousness and doubt. Could she truly cook a meal worthy of the Demon Lord? She hated to think about it, but she knew she would need that damned vampire butler's help again. And in doing so, she would likely owe the red-eyed bloodsucker a favor, which would be annoying. She didn't like owing anybody favors. But it would be well worth it if the meal she ended up cooking for her master was one that he truly enjoyed.

"Now, I think we're done talking about what happened more than two hundred years ago, so I suppose it's time for you to report on our present situation," said the Demon Lord, moving on to the next topic.

"As you wish, my Lord," she said, bowing her head as she pushed aside all thoughts of cooking for now and focused on providing a proper report.

Jade began with the current status of the Black Fortress, which was almost totally empty save for the handful of them who resided in the keep and the hundred or so vampires who patrolled the walls and the forest beyond, sleeping in whichever structures they found most convenient or comfortable along the outer walls. Elena had apparently warned them not to stray any deeper into the fortress city, and they had obeyed that command without a fault. They were currently unaware of the Demon Lord's return.

Furthermore, it went without saying that they currently had no military and no workforce at their disposal. They didn't even have any creatures, magical or otherwise, that they could make use of at present, compared to the multitudes that once flocked to them before. Not necessarily that big a deal, of course, but if they were planning to begin another campaign of world domination then they would need to start building up their forces again soon.

All of the magic defenses of the fortress were still active and in place except for the protective wards that had broken down the night of Lord Kaji's sudden return. Currently, Elena's makeshift wards were in place, serving as a temporary stopgap until Lord Kaji could renew the wards himself, since his skill and power with wards was far superior.

Speaking of Elena, as Night Queen she ruled the largest population of vampires on the continent by far. Though there were certainly other vampire factions and independent covens out there, most of whom were apparently either hostile or at least cool towards the Night Queen for one reason or another. She had done well for herself in expanding Nifleheim's territory beyond the immediate area surrounding the city of the same name, and there was relative stability in the region and a healthy amount of trade because of it.

Nifleheim military power was also one of the strongest on a per unit basis, but their overall numbers were low and thus any heavy losses incurred would be a significant blow. Skilled vampires weren't exactly easy to replace. Not that they were easy to kill either, of course. Still, Elena's hard work in building up a vampire kingdom of her own was to be commended and was certainly going to be useful in the future. And Jade had tested the strength of their strongest fighters herself, and she deemed them to be more than adequate.

The other races that used to serve the Demon Lord were all still alive and well, though the borders between their countries had changed over time and there was certainly a lot of tension and hostility between many of them. The relationship between the vampires and lycans were at an all-time low and apparently there was a big war ongoing at the moment between the orcs, the trolls, and the beastfolk. According to Elena, there were a few decades of relative peace between all the races that served the Demon Lord before it eventually descended into wars over territory, resources, and the ambition or pettiness of their new leaders, as the leaders who had served the Demon Lord either died, lost their positions, or disappeared.

Despite all of that, Jade didn't anticipate it would be too difficult to get these factions to rally under Lord Kaji's banner once again, especially once they saw him in the flesh. There were some, especially among the long-lived races, who probably still remembered serving and living under the Demon Lord after all. Or had at least heard about it from firsthand accounts. And, worst case scenario, they could always force them to serve like they did the first time for many of them. After all, who would be foolish enough to refuse the Demon Lord?

As for their old enemies, they had all grown in size and strength since Lord Kaji's disappearance, although some now had new names for their countries. There were many in the continent that would likely be opposed to the return of the Demon Lord, but the biggest and most immediate threats were the human countries of the Acheron Empire and the Holy Kingdom of Ezira, the snow elven Realm of Lossëa, and the dwarven Kingdom of Velhammar.

Though of course, Jade was not overly worried about them. She believed in her master after all. In her eyes, there was nothing he couldn't accomplish if he set his mind to it, especially once they rebuilt his armies.

She finished her lengthy report by falling silent, awaiting any comments and questions that were surely coming from her lord.

"It seems that the world has changed a fair amount since I last walked beyond these walls," said Lord Kaji. "To be expected after so much time has passed, of course. Still, I am curious what it's like out there after so long."

"Does that mean you will be launching another campaign to rule over the world once again, my Lord?" Jade could feel her own excitement bubbling up at the thought.

"I haven't decided that yet," he replied honestly.

Jade tried her best not to look disappointed at that answer. "Oh. Then. . . what do you plan to do for now, my Lord?"

Lord Kaji was silent for a while, and Jade waited patiently. Then he sat up slowly and turned to face her with his silver eyes locking on to her emerald ones. A slow smile spread across his face. "I think it's time for me to stretch my legs a little."


	8. Chapter 7

**X**

**Unfamiliar Zero**

**Chapter 7**

**=x=x=x=x=X=x=x=x=x=**

A dense cloud of dust and smoke hung in the air between the stone pillars, obscuring Louise's sight as her eyes fluttered open. Feeling suddenly out of breath, she gasped for air, causing her to cough violently as the particles in the air entered her lungs. When the coughing subsided, she realized that there was a ringing in her ears and a wooziness that made the world feel unbalanced as her head throbbed in sync with the furious beating of her heart.

Groaning, she tried to move and discovered that she was sitting on the floor with her back pressed up against one of the stone pillars. She vaguely remembered being thrown back into it only a few seconds ago by the blast, and the memory of what happened caused the back of her head to spike with a sharp pain where she had hit her head against the stone.

She reached for the back of her head and felt a wetness on her fingertips while a shot of pain coursed through her, emanating from the wound. Bringing her hand to her face, she smelled the iron of her blood before she even saw it with her eyes.

There was a sudden rush of wind and the clouds of dust and smoke dispersed, revealing a dark mark from the explosion on the stone floor a few feet away from Louise. The ugly mark of her shame that now stained these once unblemished stones.

Her pink eyes traveled to the solitary figure of the Night Queen, looking none the worse for wear, standing exactly where she had been right before Louise's failed demonstration. The young girl swallowed hard, noting the red eyes that glowed and seemed to narrow at her in an almost predatory fashion.

"You're hurt," said Lady Elena. Her voice sounded strange, like she was in a trance.

Louise looked down in shame, thinking that Lady Elena was probably so shocked at her ineptitude that she was acting this way. Her secret was out now. She was a failure of a mage, incapable of even simple spells. She could already imagine being sentenced to spending the rest of her miserable life as a maid, never to achieve her dreams and relegated to join the masses of forgotten souls who made no mark on the world worthy of remembrance beyond a generation or two from their friends and family.

"Let me. . ." began Lady Elena from where she stood, but then suddenly appeared kneeling beside Louise in a rush of wind as she continued, ". . . take a look at you."

The vampire's pale hand reached out, her blood red fingernails long and elegant, yet sharp like talons. Gently, but firmly, she grasped the hand with which Louise had touched her head wound. The girl had been meaning to wipe the blood off her fingers onto her now tattered and dirtied maid outfit, but the Night Queen stopped her. Instead, Lady Elena pulled Louise's hand up to her face and stared intently at the blood-covered fingers of the younger girl.

Before Louise even realized what was happening, a wetness engulfed her fingers and something slippery slithered around them. She stared with stunned silence at her fingers now well into Lady Elena's mouth, her tongue licking them clean as she began to suck on them. Louise's heartbeat hastened and she felt the heat rising across her chest and up to her face. Her breaths grew short and quick. She wasn't sure what to think or how to feel. What was Lady Elena doing? _Why _was she doing this?

Lady Elena moaned in ecstasy, her black lined eyes half-lidded as she pulled her head back and released Louise's fingers from her mouth, a trail of saliva stretching in-between before being broken off by the vampire licking her lips. She continued to hold onto the girl's hand and smiled as she gently rubbed circles with her thumb on the girl's soft palm.

"You really _are _delicious, you know," said the vampire, her voice a little lower. A little more sensuous. It made Louise shiver unexpectedly.

Louise swallowed and tried to look or turn away, but she couldn't. Her pink eyes could only stare at the glowing red orbs of the beautiful woman in front of her. It was almost like a compulsion. Just like before, in their first encounter, her body refused to move. Frozen in place and refusing her commands as if it no longer belonged to her.

Lady Elena inched closer. Their faces perilously close, warm breaths intermingling.

Louise's heart thumped louder, so loud that she briefly worried that it would explode. She could feel the sweat forming on her skin as her body continued to heat up, some places more than others. Her skin tingled where Lady Elena touched as the vampire slid her hand up Louise's arm and up to caress the side of her neck and face.

"Turn your head," Lady Elena said in a voice soft as velvet, crimson eyes blinking slowly.

Louise tried to resist, but it was no use. Her head turned on its own, she was sure of it. Or at least she thought she was sure. Maybe she did obey on her own volition. She didn't know anymore. Everything seemed a little hazy, almost like a dream. She could feel Lady Elena's warm breath on her exposed neck as the hand to her face continued to gently stroke her cheek, both sensations sending more shivers through the girl.

Louise's thoughts turned to their first meeting, of how she had tried to bite her. Was it going to happen this time? She didn't even know anymore if she wanted it to happen or not. Would it really be so bad if she did?

Lady Elena's other hand reached up to the wound at the back of Louise's head, parting her pink hair and running her fingers across the wounded scalp beneath. It stung and Louise winced as the pain lanced through her head from the source.

"Does it still hurt, my dear?" Lady Elena's sensuous voice tickled her ear. "Are you still in pain?"

Louise could only nod.

"Don't worry." Lady Elena's lips pressed softly against Louise's neck. "I can make it better." Another kiss, a little higher. Then another. Her tongue darted out, tracing lines across the side of her neck.

Louise's mind was trying to make sense of it all, trying to keep what little hold of herself that she could, and yet the stimulation of her senses was proving to be too much. A quiet moan escaped her lips. She felt embarrassed to even hear it, let alone that she had actually made such a sound. This was all happening too fast, and yet so agonizingly slow. Things she had never really thought about or experienced before.

"Just a little more, a little taste," whispered Lady Elena, sounding eager. Her grip on the girl tightened as she pulled her a little closer.

Louise felt a slight pain in her neck as Lady Elena sunk her fangs into her and she let out a gasp at the sudden pain. Two sharp points pierced into her skin, feeling like simultaneous stings from some large insects. But the pain quickly passed, replaced instead by a steadily rising feeling that was strange and almost euphoric. She was very aware of Lady Elena's face pressed up against her neck, and there was a wetness around where the pain had originated from.

Then a trickle of something began to slide down her neck. Was the woman _sucking her blood_?

Before she could even begin to wrap her head around the absurdity of the situation, the sound of rushing wind echoed in the distance and quickly grew louder. Then, formless shapes of dark shadows snaked through the air between the pillars from all sides and began to circled around the pair of women. The return of the shadow fiends appeared to shake the vampire queen out of her trance, her hands falling away from the girl as she moved her head back and blinked rapidly, as if coming to her senses only now. Blood trickled down the side of her mouth.

The vampire then let out an amused snort and shook her head, her lips twisting into a rueful grin. "I really should have my fill before I spend any more time with you in the future. Yours is almost too intoxicating to resist otherwise."

She wiped the blood from her face with the back of her hand, and then proceeded to lick it off that hand. Then, she reached out and wiped the blood away from Louise's neck before licking that off herself too. When she was finished, she stood up and faced the circling shadows. "Well?" she said to them expectantly.

Louise found that she could move again and immediately hugged her knees to her chest, staring down at the ground as she tried to process what happened. Her hand touched the side of her neck where Lady Elena had bitten her. She felt two small scabs already formed where the vampire's fangs had pierced her skin, and the area was still slightly damp with saliva. It was hard to believe she was really bitten. Who went around biting people's necks?

Considering how adamant Lady Jade was that she not get bitten during her first encounter with Lady Elena, Louise thought that it would be worse than this. Yet the experience wasn't nearly as bad as she expected. In fact, if it wasn't for the strangeness of the situation, it might have even been pleasurable given how it felt in the end. As the thought crossed her mind, she suddenly felt appalled at herself for even thinking that.

No. She shouldn't think that getting bitten by someone else was a good thing. Certainly not. It would be crazy to think otherwise. Especially if the person biting was also drinking her blood like she was some kind of walking and talking beverage. She reminded herself that Lady Jade was against her getting bit, so there must be some consequence to this that she didn't yet know. But what?

From the swirling shadows around them spoke strange voices, interrupting Louise's thoughts. No, that wasn't right. The _echoes of_ voices spoke, as if they stood on the other side of a vast chasm shrouded in mist. There were a few of these echoing voices, and they made obscure sounds that seemed to mimic words. Louise almost thought she imagined it when she understood them, their words winding themselves into her ears.

_"Master, we have found one of whom you seek. . ."_

_"There is _only_ one. . ."_

_"... a creature of the deep earth. . ."_

_"He speaks to the stones. . ."_

Louise glanced up to see Lady Elena grinning at her.

"Looks like we've found ourselves a long lost dwarf, my dear. Let's go say hello."

**=x=x=x=x=**

Bartho silently stalked through the empty halls of the great keep, deep in thought. A gloved hand stroked his prominent chin as he deliberated over the most recent few days of his more than two hundred years of service to his esteemed master. Arguably the most interesting and exciting days for them in at least a few decades.

He had served Queen Elena long enough to know, with some confidence, how she thought and felt at any given moment that he was allowed in her presence. For a while now, he was well aware that his queen was bored. Terribly and undeniably bored. Yet of all her subjects, only Bartho was able to discern her true feelings, to see past the impeccable façade she put up when she stepped out of her room to attend to her responsibilities as Night Queen of Nifleheim.

Bartho liked to think that he was the best possible servant, able to more often than not anticipate and act on the needs and wants of his master before needing to be told. And, being the loyal servant that he was, Bartho had also tortured himself over how to help his master overcome the immense boredom that she felt.

Unfortunately, his options were limited. He could not go too far or too big in his efforts, lest he somehow serve to upset his master instead of make her happy like he wanted. But the few plans he did put in motion over the last few decades to help alleviate his master's boredom did not work as well as intended. They ended up being too small, too easy to resolve, and had served as only the barest of distractions for his master, cunning and powerful as she was. He even wondered if perhaps she knew it was him pulling the strings from the shadows, though she never let on if she did.

Now, since that fateful night that he was instructed to call up the vaunted Night Guard for an expedition the likes of which hadn't been seen in more than fifty years, everything had changed. No longer was his master bored and going through the motions of her duties as queen. No longer was she pretending to be fine when she was not.

Instead, she was energized. Excited. Eager, even. This was the same master he remembered fondly when he first began his service to her more than two centuries ago. The master who had yet to conquer and claim Nifleheim as her own and stand at the pinnacle of vampire society.

Yet, as happy as he was for his master's newfound happiness, Bartho could not help but feel troubled.

Everything had changed so suddenly. They now effectively lived in the keep of the formidable Black Fortress, with his master rarely returning to the mansion or the palace back in Nifleheim. Not to mention that some of the Night Guard were acting as mere sentries along the lengthy outer perimeter, which seemed a waste of their talents. Surely nobody would be stupid enough to attack this place, regardless if it was long since abandoned.

With the queen spending less and less of her time in Nifleheim, she pushed many of her duties to her subordinates and withdrew from the public eye, all of whom had no idea why she was doing so. Already he heard of whispers passing among the nobles and the commoners about the dramatic shift in the queen's behavior. There were rumors of illness or weakness. Some even spoke of scandal. It was enough to make his blood boil.

Then there was the matter of the humans the queen now kept company with. Lady Jade, a human so powerful he could not help but doubt if she was actually human at all, and Louise, a frightened and clueless girl whose only redeeming qualities seemed to be her somewhat attractive and unique appearance. And perhaps her blood. He begrudgingly admitted that the girl's blood did have a particularly enticing aroma, though he did not think his queen's obsession with the girl was purely because of something so trivial. No, there had to be something else, something that he did not know.

He could understand why the queen spent time with Lady Jade. The woman's aura was undeniably formidable, and his master and the human warrior seemed to have a history with each other that spanned for some time before even his servitude to the queen. The fact that a human could have power that might actually rival that of vampire elders like the Night Queen was of course deeply concerning, despite the two of them being friends. He did not like to think that if their relationship ever soured, the life of his queen might be in jeopardy.

That girl Louise, on the other hand, seemed like a complete waste of time. Both for him and his master. Bartho could not understand why the queen seemed so interested in the girl. She was clumsy, inexperienced, and unsure of herself. Plus the girl practically oozed fear whenever she was around Bartho, and he wasn't even trying to scare her anymore like he did that first day they met. How could the queen even stand to have that girl in her presence? What was that girl even doing here in the first place?

Lastly, and probably the biggest reason he felt troubled, was the unbelievably strong aura he had felt since arriving here. An aura that, to his disbelief and dismay, continued to grow in magnitude as time went on. It came from a being that he had not yet seen, one who had locked itself in the highest level of the keep with protective spells that seemed unbreakable before he could even lay eyes on it. He wasn't stupid enough to ever try and break in, of course, though he would be lying if the thought didn't cross his mind. If only to sate his curiosity.

He had a very good idea of what, and who, the entity was, given the circumstances, but as they say, seeing is believing. And he very much wanted to see for himself what had called the Night Queen out to this bleak and deserted fortress from a bygone era. Could it really be. . .?

Bartho froze midstride. His head slowly angled upwards as his eyes narrowed. The aura in question had suddenly vanished. After feeling its presence for the last few days, its absence was unmistakably pronounced. He wondered if perhaps the being in question had heard his thoughts, but then shook his head. A foolish thought. It was likely only coincidence. Right?

Regardless, he had best investigate what happened. He was now assigned to the keep and was therefore responsible for it, and if there was trouble brewing he needed to know.

**=x=x=x=x=**

Kaji strode down the winding steps and through the empty halls with purpose. Behind him, Jade followed closely, trusty spear in hand. They arrived at a set of arched double doors made entirely of metal. A strange sight, considering that most of the doors in the keep were crafted out of wood, or a combination of wood and metal. Flanking the doors were two stone statues of armored demonic warriors standing an imposing eight feet tall. One wielded an axe and the other a spiked mace.

The solid metal doors themselves were molded with great detail into a depiction of death and sorrow on some unknown battlefield. At the center of each door was a protruding metal bust of a demon skull, complete with horns and fangs and looking like they were both howling in anger.

The stone framing the doors was carved all around it with ancient runes, and he could feel the magic emanating from the protective wards and enchantments that they powered. Taking a closer look, he was pleased to note that they were still strong and working properly.

"Jade," he said, without taking his eyes off the doors in front of him.

"Yes, my Lord?"

"Please tell him that if he intends to follow us through these doors, it will end very painfully for him."

Jade nodded once and turned her head to stare into a shadowy corner of the room they were in. More shadowy than the other corners, if one were to look closely.

"Bartho," she called out the vampire butler, "You cannot pass through these doors. Attempting to do so might actually kill you." Her words were blunt and matter-of-fact.

A few seconds ticked by with nothing happening before the butler finally materialized out of the shadows. He immediately dropped down on one knee and bowed his head, staring intently at the floor while he brought a gloved hand up to his chest.

"Please forgive me for my rudeness, Lady Jade," he said.

"You've been following us since we exited the grand staircase," said Lady Jade, looking at him for an explanation.

The vampire seemed at a loss for words for a moment. "Yes, my Lady. I sensed the sudden disappearance of a powerful aura that has been present since I arrived here, and I thought that there might have been some trouble."

"And when you saw that there was no trouble?"

Bartho lowered his head even further. "My. . . curiosity got the better of me, my Lady. I apologize."

Kaji briefly regarded the vampire butler. The shadow meld he used to conceal himself was very well done. Almost commendable, really. Most people would have probably never noticed the vampire, or would at least have not known his precise location. Jade was not like most people, however. And Kaji was a Demon Lord.

Jade rapped the butt of her spear on the floor, the sound echoing sharply across the stones. "I am_ not_ the one you should be apologizing to. You are in the presence of my master, and the master of your Night Queen. I'm sure you're smart enough to have realized who he is by now."

Kaji spared an amused glance at his trusted servant. Some might mistake Jade for being overly dramatic, but he knew well enough that she was absolutely serious about subordinates observing proper protocol and conduct in front of him. Personally, he did not mind in the slightest that the vampire had been following them. It wasn't like he was doing anything that should be kept secret.

Bartho spoke with the barest hint of worry in his voice. "My humblest apologies, Demon Lord Arkajian. I did not-"

"It's fine," Kaji cut him off with a lazy wave of his hand. "You serve Elena, yes?"

"Yes, Your Lordship." Bartho continued to stare at the floor. "Please allow me to humbly introduce myself. My name is Bartholomew Falzen. I am the first and oldest of the Night Queen's many servants, serving currently as her personal butler. She has recently assigned me to carry out my duties here at the keep, which is why I am here."

Kaji's interest was slightly piqued. "And what duties does the Night Queen's personal butler carry out, I wonder?"

"Anything and everything, Lord," replied the vampire.

Kaji glanced at Jade, who shrugged.

"I know that he can cook and clean," she offered.

"And spy, apparently," Kaji said with a slight grin. Given the vampire's stealth skills, Kaji did not doubt that the butler was also used for more hands-on tasks such as assassination, sabotage, or perhaps even stealing or kidnapping. Although it was more likely that most of his time was spent countering any such efforts by Elena's enemies, which is why he was here instead of out in the field.

Bartho nodded. "I do whatever my queen commands, Lord Arkajian."

"What if she were to order you to kill me? Or Lord Kaji?" asked Jade, her expression neutral.

"I. . ." Bartho hesitated. "I would caution her against such a thing, my Lady."

"But if she were to insist?" Jade pressed him, and Kaji looked at the vampire with keen eyes.

With a sigh of resignation, Bartho said, "Then, my Lady, I have no choice but to do my best to carry it out."

Kaji chuckled. "Smart, loyal, and obedient. Ideal traits for a servant. Very good. I see why Elena keeps you close."

"Yet he would die so readily to attempt that which is impossible for him to achieve." Jade sounded unimpressed.

"I would gladly give my life for my queen," said Bartho with conviction.

Kaji turned to his own most trusted servant. "If I were to order you to kill Elena, would you be confident you could carry it out without the risk of getting yourself killed in the process? Would you not be prepared to die trying to fulfill such a command?"

Jade looked away, her lips forming into a frown. "That's different."

"Is it?"

"I'm closer in power to my target, so it isn't an impossible task."

Kaji chuckled again, then turned to Bartho, who he noticed seemed to have tensed. Perhaps at the mention of possibly killing his master. "Oh, don't worry. I don't have any plans to get rid of Elena. As long as she continues to serve me well, she will always have a place at my side." He paused as he returned his attention to the doors and the task at hand. "Now I suppose it's time for you to take your leave, vampire. I have things to do."

The vampire got to his feet and bowed once more before heading back the way they came. This time walking normally, perhaps thinking it would be rude to leave in any other manner.

"Oh, Bartho?" called Jade, causing the butler to hesitate as he was just about to exit the room.

The butler turned to face her. "Yes, Lady Jade?"

"I. . . there is something I need to speak to you about. Come find me later."

Kaji half-turned towards her and raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.

Bartho inclined his head. "Understood, my Lady." He quickly left after that.

When Jade didn't explain herself, Kaji decided not to inquire. There was no need for him to know everything his subordinates were up to. He was not fond of micro-managing, and he trusted Jade completely.

Raising his hand, he focused his magic on the doors. The eyes of the demon heads on the doors began to glow and blue flames burst forth from their gaping jaws. Even the eyes of the statues flared to life. Then the doors began to swing open, rumbling as the room shook slightly.

A bright light shone from beyond the doors, coming from a massive tear-shaped violet crystal at least fifty feet tall and suspended in the middle of a circular pit that appeared to have no bottom as it extended down into darkness. Dozens of smaller crystals of varying sizes and colors hovered in mid-air all around, orbiting the giant crystal that dominated the space.

This was the heart of the fortress. It was from here that the entire fortress city drew energy from. To power the wards, the defenses, and to give the very stones some semblance of consciousness. There were other benefits to the inhabitants as well, minor ones such as increased mana regeneration and power amplification.

"The crystal has lost a lot of energy, but it remains in perfect condition otherwise," Jade reported as they walked into the chamber.

The doors swung shut behind them, with Jade stopping and keeping vigil by the door as he moved closer to the center.

Kaji looked around, studying the other crystals with his own eyes, before settling once again on the giant crystal in the center. The entire chamber was suffused with magical energy, but he had to agree that it was considerably weaker than he remembered. He raised both hands, palms facing towards the crystal, and concentrated on it.

First, his eyes began to glow. Followed by his hands. Then so too did the crystal. He smiled as his consciousness dove into and felt the magic embedded into the crystal.

"Elena's warding has gotten better," he noted. "But there is still room for improvement."

Even for him, it would take some time to take down the wards that Elena had put up and then rebuild them to his own liking. And he needed to be delicate, lest he accidentally damage the crystal. It was an ancient thing, after all, and difficult to work with if not done correctly. While he was at it, he might as well check on everything else connected to the crystal as well.

It was time to get to work.

**=x=x=x=x=**

Louise rubbed the side of her neck as she followed Lady Elena, the Night Queen a few steps ahead of her. Further in front and leading the way were the shadow fiends, their dark, smoky figures swirling almost restlessly.

They passed through several different halls and tunnels of all sizes, their footsteps echoing with each step. Everything they saw was carved and built with the same great care and impressive attention to detail that it made her wonder if all the dwarven cities were really like this.

Despite the fact that they were going to meet a dwarf, and that there were strange shadow creatures leading them there, Louise couldn't stop thinking about what Lady Elena had done to her. The wound was already scabbed over and didn't hurt in the slightest, but it did feel tender to the touch. Even without a mirror, though she wished she had one so that she could get a better look at it, she could tell that the wounds were small and probably barely noticeable. But the fact remained that she was most definitely bitten, and Lady Elena had drank her blood.

Why? Why had she done it?

Louise stared at the back of the blonde's head, hair falling in perfect waves down her back. She wanted to ask her, to find out the reasons for what she had done, but she could not bring herself to say anything. She was still nothing more than a servant here, and servants were not supposed to question their betters. That irked her to no end.

She took a deep breath, her hands balling into fists momentarily before she managed to relax somewhat. She needed to think of something else. Turning her attention back to their surroundings, Louise tried to focus on the dwarven architecture and craftsmanship and partially succeeded in keeping her mind off of the incident.

They walked onto a long and narrow bridge over what appeared to be an underground ravine, the bottom of which could not be seen. Off to their left were several giant wheels built into vertical shafts at the end, or perhaps the beginning, of the ravine. They resembled water wheels, yet they were still and silent. There was no water to make them work. Above the shafts were massive stone slabs that looked like gates, which was probably where the water was supposed to come from. But they were closed.

To their right were more bridges, some actually lined with working lights, crossing the ravine at varying heights, and the sight of it really served to drive home how extensive the dwarves had built this underground city beneath the fortress. A city beneath the city. One that could easily be home to thousands, yet was lifeless and empty as the city above.

They finally stopped in front of a set of doors flanked by several columns carved into a large and otherwise perfectly flat wall. The area around the door was carved with glyphs and patterns that seemed to depict death and the dead. The shadow fiends said that the dwarf could be found within.

Lady Elena raised her hand. "You've done well. I have no more need of you," she said as she flicked her wrist at them and the shadow fiends suddenly disappeared in a brief gust of wind.

Louise rolled her wand between her fingers again. It was difficult not to be envious of how easily Lady Elena commanded magic. Especially after yet another of her own magical disasters.

"You seem troubled," Lady Elena said, half-turning towards her.

"I-I'm sorry, Lady Elena," she stammered quickly, looking down at the floor.

"Sorry? What are you apologizing for?"

Louise opened and closed her mouth. She wasn't sure. Why _was _she apologizing? For looking troubled? She hadn't done anything wrong, yet here she was apologizing as if she had.

"Oh right, I was going to ask. . . what spell were you trying to cast earlier? I couldn't quite figure it out, though it looked like a simple spell."

Louise gripped her wand tighter. "I. . ."

"I mean, whatever it was, you pushed so much power through your wand that the spell practically fell apart before it could even take effect. Hence the explosion," remarked Lady Elena, looking thoughtful. "But I'm guessing that's happened before, hasn't it? That's why you were so hesitant to show me your magic. Or was that what you were trying to accomplish from the start? Causing an explosion? Because if so, then well done. That was quite an explosion from such a small spell. An inefficient use of your mana, though."

Shocked, Louise stared at the vampire, who had finally turned fully to face her. "N-No! I didn't mean. . . I-I wasn't trying to cause an explosion!" Her mind was racing. Why had no one told her before? Her spells were failing because she was overloading them with magic? She didn't even consider that a possibility.

Lady Elena smirked. "I thought as much. Though judging from how easily you can dump magic into your spells, I'd say you are most definitely suited to combat and destruction magic. But you will definitely need to learn to control the flow of your magic, even then. Especially if you want to cast other spells, and also be able to cast more spells before you run out of mana."

"I can. . . fix it?" breathed Louise. Her heart thumped in her chest. Was Lady Elena being serious? Could she really hope to be a real mage?

"Oh yes, most definitely. It won't be easy, but with lots of practice and proper instruction, you can learn to control your magic and cast spells without them blowing up in your face. Unless you want them to, of course." The lady smirked mischievously.

Louise immediately bowed at the waist, hands clenching around her wand. "P-Please teach me!" She didn't care how hard it would be. She didn't care how long it would take. If there was a clear path to becoming a proper mage, she would take it at all costs.

"Hmmm." Lady Elena stepped closer. "And what are you willing to give me in exchange? My services don't come cheap."

Louise's mind went blank as she tried to think of a response. There really wasn't anything she could offer Lady Elena that the vampire either didn't already have, or couldn't get herself. Louise had nothing to offer. No money. No influence. No special knowledge. Nothing at all. Nothing except. . . Her eyes widened.

"I don't really have anything of value, but perhaps. . . I can offer you. . . my blood?"

Lady Elena sighed, bringing a hand up to massage the bridge of her nose. "That. . . won't be necessary." She actually sounded unsure, which was a first. Then she turned away from Louise and walked towards the partially opened doors. "Fine. I'll teach you. But in exchange, you'll owe me some favors in the future. And no matter what the favors are, you'll have to agree to them. Refusal won't be an option. Is that clear?"

Louise nodded eagerly as she breathed a sigh of relief. She was honestly expecting to be turned down, but the vampire had surprised her. Despite the open-endedness of these future favors, she had no problems with the deal. She would be learning how to properly wield magic! That was well worth any price these favors turned out to be.

"Don't get me wrong," said Lady Elena, as if to temper the girl's excitement, "You're still pitifully weak, little girl, but your magic is stronger than I originally thought. There might be _some_ hope for you yet."

"Th-Thank you," Louise managed to say, not taking her words as an insult at all. She understood more than anyone else just how weak and pathetic she was, but with proper magic she knew that she wouldn't stay weak for long. She believed that with every fiber of her being.

"Oh, and about what happened between us earlier. . . Let's pretend it never happened, okay?" Lady Elena flashed a quick smile then she stepped through the partially opened doors, leaving Louise alone outside, gently rubbing the side of her neck.

**=x=x=x=x=****=x=x=x=x=****=x=x=x=x=**

**Author's Note: **As always, please let me know what you think. I've pretty much created this world from scratch, however it is without a doubt heavily inspired by a wide variety of other media and properties, many of which you'll probably recognize some shades of. I am really having fun creating a whole world simply for the heck of it and smashing a lot of things together that I have picked up over the many years of reading books, watching films, and playing games.

Things will get much busier, more exciting, and a bit more complicated from here on out. Hopefully I'm able to write it as well as I've envisioned.


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